RENDEL FIGHTS TO SAVE LOCAL SCHOOLS AS TORIES PLAN £6m CUT

6.08.03pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 11th Apr 2005

David Rendel has condemned Conservative plans which would slash school budgets in West Berkshire by £6 million.

A new analysis of Conservative policies towards schools reveals that over £3 billion would be cut from schools budgets - £6 million for every Parliamentary constituency in England.

Michael Howard plans to take the money away from state schools, and use it to subsidise private schools.

Commenting, David Rendel said:

"I am deeply worried about what these plans would mean for West Berkshire. Education in our area is amongst the very best in England. I do not want to see our enviable reputation destroyed by a sudden transfer of state school funds into the private sector. If the Conservatives get their way, rural schools would be particularly under threat, and might be forced to close.

"I am sure that many Conservative supporters locally will not be happy with such damaging proposals. My Conservative opponent will need either to denounce his own party's plans, or to explain why he thinks it is a good idea to divert millions of pounds from our local schools to subsidise pupils in the private sector."

ENDS

Note: There are currently 599,630 pupils (full-time equivalents) attending private schools in England. If private schools were to set their fees at £5,500 in order to qualify for the 100% subsidy proposed by the Conservatives, the cost to the taxpayer would be £3.3 billion (599,630 x £5,500 = £3,297,965,000). This is £6,234,338 per parliamentary constituency in England (£3,297,965,000 / 529). These pupils are not currently paid for by the taxpayer. Under Conservative proposals, taxpayers would subsidise pupils who do not go to state schools, but are currently in the private sector.