CONFERENCE NEWS
Opportunity – for every person – is what motivated me to go into politics.
It is about creating a truly free society.
Let me tell you about a group of young adults – brought together last year from all over the world by a Yeovil Church.
They were volunteers: who are helping to support teenagers in our local schools and communities.
Compared with their home countries, Britain is an affluent society.
But I was struck by what one young man, from Brazil, said to me.
He said that he was astonished that in this wealthy society, so many of our children are growing up in chaotic families, in threatening neighbourhoods, with too much drink and drugs, and without the love and support they need.
What that young man told me cannot now just be dismissed as one person’s view.
Because, this year, the United Nations ranked Britain bottom of a league table of 21 developed countries on child well-being.
And Britain now wears the badge of shame as the country where your life chances are more determined by your parents’ income than your own ability.
These reports make me feel ashamed of Britain.
For every Liberal, this record is not just a cause for concern.
It should be a rallying point for action.
You see, in spite of the extra money for schools, the gap between the highest and lowest achievers has become a chasm.
Let me tell you about these children.
They arrive on their first school day, having already fallen way behind.
And what is so shocking, is that rather than catching up at school, most of these children will fall further and further behind.
A quarter of 11 years olds cannot read, write and add up properly.
And fewer than one in five children on free school meals achieves five good GCSEs.
Those who fail are not merely lazy or the least able.
They are usually just the children of the poorest families.
And they end up in crime, low paid work or unemployment.
Without a career, without hope, many become parents at a very young age.
And, so the cycle of deprivation repeats itself.
It must be a central part of the mission of this Party to break this cycle of deprivation.
Of course, the Conservatives, also now talk of “Breakdown Britain”.
Have they really forgotten that, in the 1980s and 1990s, it was they who were in 10 Downing Street, breaking Britain down?
But David Cameron did set up a Commission!
He looked around for someone to Chair it:
? a caring ?compassionate ?Conservative.
And who did he chose? - Iain Duncan Smith.
And Mr Duncan Smith has now come back with a 700 page analysis.
And one very old idea – to tempt people down the aisle, with a new tax break.
Well – we’ve done our own analysis of his idea. Here it is.
It would cost a total of £4bn?each year?think what could be done with that!
About two thirds of married couples gain absolutely nothing at all. Nothing.
Of those that do, the majority don’t even have children.
And – get this – one million of the people who Iain Duncan Smith wants to pay for being married, have already split up!
But there was one person in the Tory Party who really had some new ideas – David Willetts.
He understood that the real chance to break the cycle of deprivation lies with education, and without selection.
And what happened to him? - Mr. Cameron sacked him.
And that was the end of new thinking in the Tory Party.
So, if there is going to be new thinking – it’s got to come from this Party.
I want us – together – to set out a new liberal direction for education.
It should be based on opportunity, localism, and real empowerment.
Over the months ahead, our team of Annette Brooke, Stephen Williams, Joan Walmsley and Kishwer Khan will be going out to look at the best new education thinking here and abroad.
Children with loving and supportive parents do better in life. So we will look at what more can be done to enable good parenting.
The second challenge, for all children, is for more high quality early years education.
Finally, we must help our schools to break the link between poverty and poor performance.
Gordon Brown says that his big ambition is that in 15 years time state schools should be funded at the level private schools reached, last year!
Well, sorry Gordon, but there are millions of children out there who – literally – cannot wait any longer.
And for the last 15 years we have been the party which has not run away from the tough decisions about education funding.
We campaigned for 1p on tax for education even when it was controversial, and until it was delivered.
You, in this party helped to make that change possible.
And yesterday you took the next step towards a better education system.
The Pupil Premium, which you voted for yesterday, would immediately guarantee more money to educate children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds.
The Pupil Premium will also provide an incentive for the best state schools to take on some of the most challenging pupils.
Our new commitment is to shift over £1.5bn extra each year into schools.
This will be paid for by taking higher earners out of tax credits – reducing dependency and increasing opportunity.
Our aim is simple: to raise funding levels for children from disadvantaged backgrounds to that in private schools – not in 20 years time, but starting right now.
And – by the way – we won’t dictate to head teachers what they do with the money!
Ed Balls, our new Secretary of State for Education, wrote a three page letter last week to every school in Britain, telling them: “must do better.”
With a Liberal Democrat Secretary of State there would be no more pointless instruction letters with the word “Balls” scribbled at the bottom!
Head teachers and Governors, not Ministers, will choose whether to use the money for smaller class sizes, or after school classes, or one-on-one tuition.
And up to £500 million pounds each year will be re-directed from the Child Trust Fund to where it makes the most difference – cutting class sizes in the earliest years of school.
This must be our commitment: real financial support for the children who need it most, when they need it most, and in the schools that need it most.
Over the last 30 years, we have gone from the “secret garden” of education, to unprecedented examination, targeting, and meddling.
Doubtless there are people who would like to turn the clock back all the way.
Candidly, I’m not convinced this would help poor children.
There must be accountability, transparency, and higher standards.
But there are problems: Too much time taken up by exam preparation and “teaching to the test”.
- Well-meaning targets which distort child priorities.
- Fears of “grade inflation”.
- Incessant meddling.
We need a better balance between freedom and accountability, education and examination.
Just as the independent Bank of England brought stability and credibility to one aspect of economic policy, we should do the same for education.
So my second proposal today is that we consider establishing a fully independent Educational Standards Authority, to replace the Government controlled Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.
The aim:
- To restore confidence in our exam system.
- To restore stability to the curriculum.
- To drive up standards, by spreading best educational practice.
It is time to bring to an end the ill considered meddling by “bog standard” Ministers.
Under this Government, there has been a lot of talk about “diversity” in education.
There is certainly a staggering number of maintained school types.
24 different types of school in total!
And now the Government is encouraging Specialist Schools to take on extra Specialisms!
It surely cannot be long before some bright spark in Government decides that the next innovation will be the “Comprehensive” Specialist School, and then we will be back to square one!
This Government should understand?
You don’t improve schools just by changing the nameplates.
But let’s not pretend that the old system worked well either.
The wealthy in Britain chose private schools.
The affluent chose schools by choosing where to live.
And the rest often ended up in the toughest schools in the roughest neighbourhoods.
Bluntly, it would be difficult to design a system which more effectively discriminates against the disadvantaged than this.
As liberals, we can do much – much – better than this.
And I want our education policy to be defined by what we believe in, not just by what we are against.
Our aim, of course, must be a good local school in every single neighbourhood.
But that is an excellent aspiration, it is not a policy.
The challenge is how you get high quality local schools in every area.
First, you devolve power.
Second, you empower.
Third, you give school leaders the freedom to innovate.
It is local authorities who should oversee fair admissions; help drive up standards and support smaller schools.
And Local Authorities must have more financial freedom – with powers to add to national funding.
We must replace Labour’s “Localism Lite” with real Liberal Democrat devolution.
But, as liberals, it cannot be enough only to move power down from national
politicians to local politicians.
Our vision is not merely “the empowered local politician in the enabling state”, it is for the “empowered citizen.”
Socialists believe only in empowering politicians.
And Conservatives believe only in empowering the market.
It is we Liberals who believe in empowering people.
But schools shouldn’t have the soft option of picking the best pupils. It should be the parents and pupils who are empowered to choose their schools.
That is why I believe that the power to select – by the front door or the back door - should be removed from Academies, Specialist Schools, Trust and Foundation schools.
If we believe in empowering parents and pupils, part of that empowerment is choice.
Choice is not a dirty word: it is one of the essential freedoms in a liberal society.
And it is a liberal way of promoting real diversity, innovation, and higher standards.
We should welcome new schools – as they do in many progressive countries – so long as those schools accept overarching admissions policies and the minimum curriculum standards.
Finally, we must allow more innovation.
It is absurd that only the Government’s pet schools should have the powers to innovate.
These freedoms should be available in every school.
Good headteachers and staff are the most precious assets in our schools.
Every one of us understands the impact that great school leadership and teaching can have.
We must attract a new generation of headteachers to replace those who are retiring.
To teach children is one of the greatest social responsibilities.
We must recognize this, and we must reward it too.
The great Liberal, John Stuart Mill, wrote that without education, freedom is an empty vessel.
Education has always been a great passion for this Party. And it is for me.
I was lucky, both in my education and my upbringing.
And you can respond to that in one of two ways – either you become a Conservative, because you want to protect the privileges you enjoyed, or you become a progressive, because you want everyone to enjoy those same opportunities.
A year ago, Mr. George Osborne kindly asked me to become a Conservative.
One or two of my colleagues may have thought I already was!
But, I am a liberal and a progressive.
And, in 2007, I am both sad and angry to find that we continue to live in a country in which your life chances are still framed by background, rather than ability.
For Liberal Democrats, that is simply unacceptable.
So, the Liberal Democrat Party must become the Education Party, the Opportunity Party, for a coming liberal century of personal empowerment.
Now, politicians in the other parties will, of course, mouth these self same words, to dress their political platforms.
But I would say that these great ambitions are more likely to be delivered by the Party which since its very beginning has been the home of personal freedom and economic liberalism.
A party which has for over 100 years sought to marry social liberty with individual empowerment.
There is only one party with the passion and principles to meet that challenge.
Our Party, the Liberal Democrats.
