Trusts & Academies…the fragmentation, marketisation and privatisation of education

The NUT View…The ACADEMIES and TRUSTS agenda has NOTHING to do

with EDUCATION STANDARDS…

…and EVERYTHING to do with the drive to PRIVATISATION

Government by bullying & blackmail

Many Local Authorities havehad an Academy forced on them – threatened with havingBuilding Schools for the Future(BSF) funding withheldNot so much an Academy Award as an Academy Imposition –A Gordon rather than an Oscar

The “post-war consensus”Victory of fascism... the demand for change & post-war reconstruction

The economy needed an advanced, newly skilled working class

Workers demanded educational opportunity and fundamental social change

All sides – employers, government and workers - were aware of the political significance of a literate, skilled, educated working class

A new Britain... 1944 and all that The 1944 Education Act GCT Giles, President of the NUT...

A “reconstructed, unified, democratic system of education” “Can equality be achieved within the three school types?” The need to develop “a school of a new type” to “reconcile the claims of

vocationalism, citizenship and general culture” “(There are) those that argue that the experiment cannot flourish within a

State system. How little they know of the rich and varied history of State schools”

Education, “a necessary condition of developing and broadening democracy” “The reactionary die-hard forces, which too often in the past have succeeded

in strangling educational & social progress, have not undergone a sudden and miraculous change of heart.”

“We will need all the strength, experience & leadership of our great Union and of a united profession… and the active sympathy & co-operation of a public opinion more enlightened and more determined than ever before to sweep aside the obstruction of vested interest and privilege.”

11+ & the fight for comprehensives

1960s & 70s agitation, research, campaigning &

struggle for comprehensive education Govt. Circular 10/65 instructed LEAs to begin 1969 & 71 “The Black Papers” counterattack 1970 Tory Govt (Education Sec Thatcher) 1975 Labour Govt (Ed Sec Shirley Williams) Threats of legal action against non-compliance 1976 PM Callaghan launches

“The Great Education Debate” 1979 Tories elected with PM Thatcher

Thatcher arrives...

The Tories gave us…

Defence of Grammar Schools

Assisted Places scheme subsidising private education

Local Financial Management & then LMS

Funding famine Compulsory Competitive

Tendering

“Opting Out” City Technology Colleges EAZs SATs & League Tables Punitive Ofsted Inspection “Parental Choice” Outsourcing of LEAS Private Finance Initiative

..and then came Tony

CCT footage from the crime scene

“Education, education,education” “Essential challenges of modernisation…

…to create an economy fully attuned to a new global market…

…to fashion a modern welfare state where the role of government changes so it is not necessary to provide all social provision...

…the process is irresistible and irreversible”Speech to TUC 1997

..which brought usthe Government’s 5 year strategy

‘Diversity & Choice’ attack on “bog standard comprehensives” Extension of PFI - “Building Schools For The Future” (BSF) Specialist Schools Extension of “Foundation Status” for schools Further reduction in the role of LEAs and increase in outsourcing City Academies - now “Academies” and even “Skills Academies” Workforce Remodelling –

through “Social Partnership” divide & rule Enforced school staff pay restructuring & attacks on pensions “Academic & vocational ‘pathways’ at 14” Schools run by private companies, individuals, voluntary groups,

parents, faith groups Higher Education fees & increasing student debt

BSF and Education Transformation

•Not just about buildings

•A catalyst for change

•Local education vision

- clear

- outcomes

- joined-up

- central to project

- inform design and ICT

Summary

• BSF is a 15-year Strategic National Investment programme

– 3,500 schools across 150 local authorities

• £2.2bn per annum of capital investment

– sustained subject to future public spending decisions

– enables maximum impact on educational transformation

• PfS is the national delivery vehicle for BSF• Local Education Partnership: a joint venture between local

authorities, PfS and a private sector partner

– better and faster procurement

• Transforming education and delivering 21st Century standards

in secondary schools across England

The LEP structure

Local Authority

BSF Strategic Business Case

Local Stakeholders (Schools, PCT,LSC)

Strategic Partnering Agreement

LOCAL EDUCATION

PARTNERSHIP

Local Supply Chain

Partnerships for Schools (?10%)

Local Authority (? 10%)

Private Sector Partner (?80%)

Shareholders Agreement

Strategic Partnering Board

The LEP Proposition

Public Sector offers

• Exclusivity over a large volume of

work

• Repeat business with a single

client

• High reward to bidding cost ratio

Private Sector brings

• Innovation in school design and technology

• Development capital and expertise

• Supply Chain management skills

– continuous improvement

– scale economies, efficiencies

– integration of contracts and services (PFI, D&B, ICT, FM)

• Faster delivery

II.1.5) Short description of the contract or purchase(s): The contracting authorities are seeking an innovative private sector partner or partners to participate and invest in a new Public Private Partnership vehicle (a "Local Education Partnership" or "LEP") to be established jointly with some or all of the contracting authorities.The LEP will provide (or arrange for the provision of) "Partnering Services", which will include (but not be limited to) the development of a strategic investment programme for:a) educational facilities;b) other facilities including but not exclusively community, health and social care;(together the "Relevant Facilities") in the contracting authorities area.These Partnering Services will also comprise the following services:a) strategy advisory services;b) programme management services;c) project development services;d) procurement consultancy services; ande) procurement and delivery or management of all services required to deliver the strategic investment programme for the Relevant Facilities (including through the provision, integration and management of supply chain arrangements). It is anticipated that such services may include:I) architectural services;II) engineering services;III) construction services;IV) technical services;V) building services;VI) hard facilities management;VII) soft facilities management;VIII) information communication and technology ("ICT") services;IX) educational support services;X) education programme development services;XI) education strategy services;for a period of up to 15 years

.

Academies £2m ‘donation’ from a sponsor

(over 5 years & often not paid) buys control of the Academy – buildings, grounds, community use, staff

Now “Buy three get one free” (4 Academies for ‘promise of’£6 million) Government puts in the other £30+million and running costs 3 opened in 2002, 9 in 2003, 5 in 2004, 10 in 2005, 19 in 2006 2005 target of 200 by 2010 was doubled to 400 in November 2006 What is the expansion of the programme based on?

Educational research? Piloting and evaluation? Or dogmatic ideological commitment to private sector control?

Pictures: Des Smith, and Lord Levy (“Lord Cashpoint”) with Tony Blair. Both were members of the Specialist Schools & Academies Trust – both arrested and questioned over “Cash for Honours” issues.

"I demand that Blair is arrested and treated the same way that I have been treated” Des Smith

Academies evidence Educational research

OECD PISA – endorses state comprehensive education… …so does Professor Peter Mortimore “Which Way Forward?”

“Piloting & Evaluation” 3 annual studies by Price Waterhouse Cooper (commissioned by Govt)

2004 “Could lead to a two-tier system based on social class, and thwart collaboration between schools” The report was not published.

2005 highlighted staff workload, SEN admissions, bullying, impractical design, lack of representative Governors as problems

2006 – showed very great differences in performance suggesting that Academy status was not a determining factor in educational performance

Parliamentary Education & Skills Select Committee Proper “pilots” should be undertaken before increasing number of Academies Raised concerns over impact of academies on neighbouring schools… … over reducing numbers of pupils from deprived backgrounds… … over reducing percentages of SEN pupils… …and more concerns over the number of pupils ‘excluded’ from Academies

There is NO EVIDENCE that ACADEMY STATUS improves EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS

Who are the “Academicians”to name just a few…

Lord Harris of Carpet Warehouse Sir Peter Vardy, fundamentalist Christian used car sales millionaire The Church of England Carphone Warehouse Roger de Haan, Chief Exec, Saga Holidays Amey PLC – a construction company John Madejski OBE – founder of AutoTrader Andrew Rosenfeld – current Chairman Minerva property developers, tax

exile, and £1m lender to Labour Party Sir David Garrard – previous Chairman Minerva property developers etc etc ARK – hedge fund speculators Sir Martyn Arbib, Perpetual Fund Management Company Sir Frank Lowe, Advertising and PR agency entrepreneur David Samworth – a sausage and pie manufacturer

amongst other philanthropists…

Behind the scenes In 2004, Government NO to ‘vetting’

sponsors – despite ENRON being on the list The TES: two Academies have been discovered paying out

large sums of school money to companies connected to the sponsor West London Academy: £180,964 to businesses and a charity

connected to Sir Alec Reed – the sponsor King’s Academy, Middlesbrough: £290,214 to organisations

and individuals connected with Sir Peter Vardy – the sponsor – including £14K to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Crusade

Des Smith of the Specialist Schools & Academies Trust promised “honours” to sponsors – and when arrested and questioned, demanded that Tony Blair be arrested too

Nine Academy sponsors have received honours so far

Academies ‘outcomes’?

Unaccountable schools – no external democratic control Lack of parent and staff governors – no internal democratic control Cost on average £32m – twice the cost of a comprehensive Undermining teachers’ national pay & conditions, increasing workload Undermining the curriculum

In Oct 2005, 12 Vocational Academies were announced to “provide the plasterers, plumbers and bricklayers of tomorrow”

Use of Academies to further the sponsor’s business & personal interests Undermining communities of schools working together Pupil selection, SEN and growing “exclusion” issues

In Bristol Academy the percentage of SEN children fell from 46% to 28% and in Walsall Academy from 41% to 8%

Use of Academies for ideological education In Vardy Academies, the Bible’s ‘creationism’ is taught

Taking our education system towards privatisation

…and then, directly from the New Labour-Tory coalition

The Education Act All schools to become “increasingly independent” Schools to be “encouraged” to become Trust Schools – similar to

Academies, but without the sponsorship money - with control over the curriculum & teachers’ pay & conditions

All new schools likely to be Trust Schools Businesses, faith groups & “voluntary sector” to set up schools and

help form clusters or federations of existing ones. ‘Popular’ schools to be allowed to expand & to take in more pupils. Private schools to be allowed to "opt in" to the state sector.

Religious schools, in particular, are expected to take advantage of this.

‘Failing schools’ to be given a year to improve or face closure –

to be to be replaced with a new Trust School

A seamless transition…As Gordon Brown approached his coronation as Labour Party leader…“ I will continue to support and finance the Academies and Trust Schools initiatives… I was talking to someone only last night, trying to persuade them that it was in their interests and the country’s interests to become a sponsor of a City Academy” 15th May 2007. Radio 4 “World At One”

No mention of the interests of children or teachers, then!

Gordon “sets out his vision for education” – October 2007

What does he have to say about Academies?o “Annual improvement targets for allschools that fall below the threshold”o “good schools brought in to help poorer schools under improvement networks run 'by schools, for schools', as the Specialist Schools & Academies Trust motto puts it”o “complete closure or takeover by a successful neighbouring

school in a trust or federation, or transfer to academy status, including the option of take over by an independent school.”

Well done Gordon! (says Blair…

I always knew you had it in you…)

o “There will be 150 more Academies in the next three years, on route to our target of 400…”o “More local authorities doing what Manchester, Birmingham, Oldham and others are doing - putting

Academies at the heart of their local school improvement plans.”

o “And more independent schools setting up academies to take over failing schools.”

So WHY is all this happening – and why NOW?

It’s Balls – and that’s official!

o June 2008: Ed Balls names 638 “failing schools” (including 28 Academies) with less than 30% of children achieving 5 A-C grade GCSEs – threatens to replace them with Academies

o Local Authorities still with Grammar School selective systems have the highest number of these schools

o The 638 are in areas of greatest social & economic deprivationo The old pre-comprehensive selective system produced only 20%

of children with 5 GCE “O” levelso Comprehensive schools nationally produce 60% at that standardo The 638 would all have been Secondary Modern schools in which

only a handful of children might have taken “O” levelso Now if “only” 29% achieve 5 A-C GCSEs they are to be

considered as “failures”

The threat to these schools is NOTHING to do with educational standards and EVERYTHING to do with the drive to fragmentation and privatisation of education…

SO WHY IS ALL THIS HAPPENING NOW?

Globalisation & education‘external’ pressuresAndy Green, reader in Education at University of London Institute of Education.

“As the national state becomes a marginal force in the new world order, so education becomes an individualised consumer good delivered in a global market and accessed through satellite and cable links. National education ceases to exist”

“Education, Globalisation & The Nation State”

To put it another way…

“Why educate your own people when you can import some cheaper, or export the jobs?

Education for global profit

Global spending on education exceeds two thousand billion dollars

World wide there are 50 million teachers employed Over one billion students are taught in hundreds of

thousands of educational establishments Education International - the international education

union organisation says,

“Some see this immense bloc as a dream market for future investment”

“Liberalisation world-wide”

World Trade Organisation, “General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)… “GATS is the first ever set of multilateral, legally enforcable, rules governing international trade in services”

The European Commission publication “World Trade In Services”… “Services negotiations should extend liberalisation world-wide, creating new trade and investment opportunities in all service sectors”

The European Union Constitution and the European Services Directive reinforce these messages

Speaking personally...

Prof. James Tooley, privatisation theorist and practitioner, Newcastle University,

“We mustn’t be tempted by the reassuring spin that the public sector can hope to match the incentives of the private sector. The way forward for education is to bring in (these) incentives… Education is far too important to be excluded from the virtues of the profit motive”

and from the USA...

Michael Milken, a leading US finance capitalist, speaking to Arthur Levine, President of Teachers’ College, Columbia University…

“You guys are in trouble… and we’re gonna eat your lunch…”

The end of state education?As Education International puts it…

“In the wake of other major public services which have been subject to extensive privatisation & deregulation, public education is being increasingly targeted by predatory and powerful entrepreneurial interests. The latter are aiming at nothing less than its dismantling by subjecting it to international competition.”

They know the truth...

“We also fail our most disadvantaged children and young people… internationally, our rate of child poverty is still high, as our the rates of worklessness in one-parent families, the rate of teenage pregnancy and the level of poor diet amongst children. The links between poor health, disadvantage and low education outcomes are stark.”

‘The 5 year strategy for Children & Learners’

Spinning child poverty

“Our historic aim will be for ours to be the first generation to end child poverty for ever. The child born in the run down estate should have the same chance to be healthy and well-educated as the child born in the leafy suburbs”Tony Blair, 1999

The reality of child poverty April 2007 – child poverty

increased by 100,000 April 2008 – increased by a further 100,000 The number of UK Children living in poverty –

on Government figures – is now 3.9million“In a country as wealthy as ours it is a

scandal that the number of children growing up in poverty has increased. Poverty blights their life chances – poverty which for many is simply overwhelming” Martin Narey, End Child Poverty

The ‘haves’ & ‘have-nots’…UK Government Office of National StatisticsRichest 1% of the population

owns 34% of total wealthRichest 5% own 58%Richest 10% own 71%And the poorest 50% of the population

own 1% of wealth between them“It’s the same the whole world over, ain’t it all a bloomin’ shame?It’s the rich what gets the pleasure, and the poor what gets the blame…”

…and what’s the effect?

“The research shows that it is possible to combine socio-economic

classification of the household with the child’s overall developmental score at age 22 months to accurately predict education qualifications at age 26 years…

By age 22 months children’s developmental score is already stratified by class, and this increases significantly by the age of 10 years” Gillian Evans Educational Failure & Working Class White Children in Britain (2006)

Likely outcomes?The “direction of travel”

Academic, privately run, high flying “top up” fee paying schools staffed by qualified teachers, with locally negotiated pay and conditions - and financially supported by the private sector or owned by them.

“Vocational” schools, providing core curriculum - and post 14 training in FE colleges and on employers’ premises. Many classes run by non QTS staff.

Social Partnership… and Divide & Rule

The Government attempts to incorporate potential opposition…

The Workload/Remodelling Agreement & WAMGThe School Workforce Restructuring Agreement

and RIGThe pre-election Warwick Agreement

…and to bully - or “kick off the bus” (Milliband) -

those who refuse to collaborate.

Off the back foot…taking the initiative...

NUT’s “Bringing Down The Barriers”& “A Good Local School For Every Child & Every Community”

A new “Great Education Debate” Re-organising our Unions to meet the taskProfessional Unity – one education unionBroad campaigning coalitions of individuals &

organisations in every community TUC policy for “An integrated programme of

educational, vocational training and youth employment”