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Grammar schools: Budget to include funds for new free schools Cash for new grammar schools in £320m Budget plan
(35 minutes later)
Extra money for new schools in England, including free and grammar schools, will be announced by the chancellor in his Budget on Wednesday. Extra money for new free schools and grammar schools in England will be announced by the Chancellor in his Budget on Wednesday.
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. 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 spend £216m to rebuild and refurbish existing schools. He will also promise £216m to rebuild and refurbish existing schools.
However, the money cannot be used to address what head teachers say is a £3bn spending shortfall in schools. But Labour's Angela Rayner says it still leaves schools facing £3bn in spending cuts.
The Chancellor's funding announcement will open the way for a new generation of grammar schools.
But it will not address the growing warnings from head teachers about a funding crisis in existing schools.
There have been warnings of four-day weeks and cuts in staffing and subjects - and the National Audit Office has warned of a 8% real-terms funding gap for schools up to 2020.
'Great meritocracy''Great meritocracy'
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. But, writing in the Daily Telegraph, Prime Minister Theresa May said her "personal mission" was to increase the diversity of England's school system.
"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."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.
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 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".
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". Grammar school head teachers have revealed their discussions with ministers about how new selective schools could operate - such as providing centres of excellence for the top 10% of the ability range.
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. And Mrs May is promising to put out the details of the government's plans "in the coming weeks".
All new schools have to be free schools - set up by an organisation and funded by central government, rather than the local authority. All new schools are now required to be free schools - but if the ban on opening new grammar schools is lifted, it would mean some of the £320m investment set to be announced in the Budget could be used for new selective schools or to expand existing grammars.
The government has been looking at lifting the ban on opening new selective state grammar schools.The government has been looking at lifting the ban on opening new selective state grammar schools.
'Funding crisis''Funding crisis'
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. General secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, Dr Mary Bousted, said teachers and heads in the existing state schools, who faced real-terms cuts, would be dismayed to see the chancellor prioritising 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." Head teachers' and teachers' unions and regional head teachers' organisations have been campaigning over funding shortages.
The clamour over budgetary pressures in schools has built recently, with groups of heads lobbying MPs and the education secretary for assistance. They have warned that their budgets have not kept pace with rising costs.
Head teachers have been complaining of an unfunded pay rise, extra national insurance payments and a freeze in the funding level per pupil. But 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 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. The Budget will also see Mr Hammond pledge to ensure children from poor backgrounds are given an entitlement to have paid travel to selective schools.
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. Labour's shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said she was "really quite disgusted" by the funding plans, saying it was a "drop in the ocean" compared with the scale of cuts.
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. Grammar plans were a "vanity project", she said.
"People are concerned about being given an invoice of £30, £40 a week because schools can't afford to provide the teaching and excellence all children deserve.
"This is not a meritocracy, this is an ideological attack on the working class people of this country and being able to get a decent education," she said.
The Liberal Democrats' education spokesman John Pugh said it was "unbelievable" to focus money on more free schools when the "free schools programme was shown to have overspent to the tune of £9bn".
"The Tories absolutely have their priorities wrong on education if they think this is the right way to spend money," said Mr Pugh.