A quick calculation:
I hope this is right:
Using these figures:
93% of children currently in the state sector and this costs £69.4 billion. Extending this to cover 100% of children would then cost:
(7/93) * 69.4 = £5.2 billion extra. Less than the costs of ID cards, probably less than the Olympics will cost and for immeasurably higher benefits.
Parents who were paying school fees will now be taxed more on savings and purchases as well, making up a small amount of that.
The improvement in quality of education, across the board, will also make this well worth it in my opinion. Extending the choice the privileged few have to the many makes it worth it. Giving people power over their own lives, enfranchising them makes it worth it.
I find it strange that people who are often willing to spend a lot of money on things like free care for the elderly will shirk away from spending it on our young, on those who will care for us in our old age.
The whole reason for my arguing for choice, be it through vouchers or another way, is that it improves the chances of the poorest and most vulnerable in society. That it offers opportunity and hope to those who lack currently lack it.
Freedom and liberty should be the aims of our party. Choice gives both those and improved standards. What more could we ask for? (apart from a complete eradication of all suffering…).
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November 20th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Tristan,
I got a little lost in this, but what seems of particular interest to me is that the state spends around 25% more on educating a child than schools; in other words, a fifth of the education budget is lost in bureaucracy.
By comparrison, all bureaucracy is captured within the cost of an independent school. So when Gordon Brown talks about raising spending in schools to independent school levels, he needs to either find a way of reducing that wasted 20% to zero or explain why we should spend the money in this inefficient way rather than just giving people the money and sending them private.
As the reform figures make clear, we could give every child a voucher worth £6,150, which is more than the government plans to spend per pupil but less than the current education budget. We can continue to regulate the schools using Ofsted (a separate debate) but get rid of the deadweight bureaucracy in Whitehall.
November 20th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Devolve, devolve, devolve. It’s the only answer to bureaucracy. Deliver services at the lowest appropriate level, say a sub-region, with a small national department for educational standards to keep an eye on the basics, while allowing different systems to develop.
November 20th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
And the lowest level to devolve to - the educator (in most cases the school).
Unfortunately that leap from government to an institution not controlled by the state isn’t being made by LibDems…
November 21st, 2007 at 11:07 am
Yes, and the inability of Lib Dems to do that leap, in education, health care and other public services is probably the main reason why the Lib Dems can’t appeal to a certain group of liberals, who don’t identify themselves as Lib Dems.
November 21st, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Tom, you’re a councillor, innit? Find out what your LEA does, and get it to stop. Bingo.