Letter From The Secretary Of State For Education

EDM number 438 in 1994-95, proposed by Don Foster on 20/01/1995.

That this House welcomes the honesty of the Secretary of State for Education in warning her cabinet colleagues last year that, unless the local government finance settlement for 1995-96 took into account rising pupil numbers, inflation and the teachers' pay awards, thousands of teachers would lose their jobs and class sizes would shoot up, notes that the settlement failed to take these factors into account; further notes that her fears are borne out by government figures which show that the Education Standard Spending Assessment per primary school pupil is due to fall, in real terms, by 2.5 per cent. next year and by 6.9 per cent. per secondary school pupil; and suggests that she sends a copy of these figures and her letter to her honourable Friend, the Minister of State for Education, who said in the House on 19th December 1994 `The plea from LEAs that they do not have enough money will not wash.' (Relevant registered interest declared)

This motion has been signed by a total of 22 MPs.