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More free schools pledged amid budget squeeze Grammar schools: Budget to include funds for new free schools
(about 9 hours later)
The chancellor has pledged half a billion pounds to build new schools and revamp others, while heads in England grapple with a daily funding crisis. Extra money for new schools in England, including free and grammar schools, will be announced by the chancellor in his Budget on Wednesday.
Philip Hammond will confirm, in this week's Budget statement, a one-off £320m for 140 new free schools on top of the 500 already pledged by 2020. Philip Hammond will confirm a one-off payment of £320m for 140 new free schools on top of the 500 already pledged to be created by 2020.
He will also pledge £216m to rebuild and refurbish existing schools with modern facilities. He will also spend £216m to rebuild and refurbish existing schools.
But this cash cannot be used to address the £3bn spending shortfall in schools. However, the money cannot be used to address what head teachers say is a £3bn spending shortfall in schools.
The clamour over budgetary pressures has been building recently, with groups of heads lobbying MPs and the education secretary for assistance. 'Great meritocracy'
Some schools have even warned parents they will be asking for donations. Writing in the Telegraph, Prime Minister Theresa May said it was her "personal mission" to increase the capacity and diversity of the school system to provide a good school place to cater for the needs and abilities of every child.
'More choice' "That means decisively shifting Britain's education system and building a great meritocracy so that children from ordinary working families are given the chances their richer contemporaries take for granted," she said.
Head teachers have been complaining of an unfunded pay rise, extra national insurance payments and a freeze in the funding level per pupil. The prime minister said the government would enable new selective free schools to be set up "so that the most academically gifted children get the specialist support to fulfil their potential, regardless of their family income or background".
The Institute of Fiscal Studies warned that schools faced a 6.5% drop in spending per pupil between 2015-16 and 2019-20 because of rising costs. She has promised to set out the next stage of the government's schools programme in the coming months, with a schools white paper to be published "in the coming weeks".
However, ministers insist schools funding is at its highest level on record. The £320m investment set to be announced in the Budget is earmarked for the free school programme but could also be used to fund new grammar schools.
Mr Hammond said: "We are not starting from scratch; we have protected the core schools budget, which stands at over £40bn this year, and these announcements take the next steps in giving parents greater choice in finding a good school for their child, whatever their background." All new schools have to be free schools - set up by an organisation and funded by central government, rather than the local authority.
Prime Minister Theresa May said: "For too many children, a good school place remains out of reach, with their options determined by where they live or how much money their parents have. The government has been looking at lifting the ban on opening new selective state grammar schools.
"Over the last six years, we have overseen a revolution in our schools system and we have raised standards and opportunity, but there is much more to do." 'Funding crisis'
'Dismayed' General secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers Dr Mary Bousted said teachers and heads in the thousands of existing state schools, who faced real-terms cuts, would be dismayed to see the chancellor throwing more money at free schools and grammars.
She promised to set out the next stage of the government's schools programme in the coming months.
The £320m investment is earmarked for the free school programme but could also be used to fund new grammar schools.
All new schools have to be free schools.
Mr Hammond will also pledge to ensure children from very poor backgrounds are given an entitlement to have travel to selective schools paid for.
General secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers Dr Mary Bousted said teachers and heads in the thousands of existing state schools, facing real-terms cuts, would be dismayed to see the chancellor throwing more money at free schools and grammars.
"These spending pledges are totally insufficient to tackle the schools funding crisis the government is inflicting on schools by forcing them to make over £3bn of savings by 2020," she said."These spending pledges are totally insufficient to tackle the schools funding crisis the government is inflicting on schools by forcing them to make over £3bn of savings by 2020," she said.
"Not only will the funding be misdirected, but the National Audit Office found that it costs far more to create a place in a free school than it does in a mainstream school.""Not only will the funding be misdirected, but the National Audit Office found that it costs far more to create a place in a free school than it does in a mainstream school."
The clamour over budgetary pressures in schools has built recently, with groups of heads lobbying MPs and the education secretary for assistance.
Head teachers have been complaining of an unfunded pay rise, extra national insurance payments and a freeze in the funding level per pupil.
The Institute of Fiscal Studies warned that schools faced a 6.5% drop in spending per pupil between 2015-16 and 2019-20 because of rising costs.
However, ministers insist schools funding is at its highest level on record. Mr Hammond said the core schools budget stood at more than £40bn this year.
The Budget will also see Mr Hammond pledge to ensure children from very poor backgrounds are given an entitlement to have paid travel to selective schools.