Free schools stemmed from a desire to undermine local Government foundations, says Gateshead MP
Dave Anderson, MP for Blaydon, Gateshead, calls for equity between different types of schools in the state system, after an analysis of DfE data conducted by the Guardian showed that free schools received an average funding of £7,761 per pupil, whilst Local Authority schools were allocated an average of £4,767.
Calling free schools a “vanity project”, Anderson told The Chronicle: “despite this lopsided funding, the success and failure rates are very much in line with schools in the state sector, so it is clear that this programme is little more than an ideological vanity project driven by the desire to undermine the foundations on which local Government is built.”
He added that through the opening of free schools “the taxpayer is funding the demise of the democratic structures that ensure fairness and equal access for the next generation.”
The recent Guardian analysis also revealed that a quarter of the 54 mainstream free schools included in the data released by the DfE received “at least £10,000 per pupil in 2013-14, compared with national averages for conventional state schools of £5,817 among all secondaries and £4,402 among primaries.” The entire analysis can be read here.
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