Rishi Sunak risks lost generation by shortchanging schools – The Yorkshire Post says

The Richmond MP’s spending bonanza, worth an estimated £150bn, including a further £3bn to help pupils catch up on lost learning and an extra £4.7bn for schools by 2024-25.

Education crisis further shows how Government is betraying young people - The Yorkshire Post says

Yet these sums – a fraction of the request made by Sir Kevan Collins when education recovery commissioner – today look even more inconsequential.

Ex schools catch-up tsar increases pressure on Rishi Sunak for funding answers – The Yorkshire Post says

For, while Mr Sunak said every pupil was receiving a cash increase of £1,500, education spending will – by the end of this Parliament – only be marginally better off than in 2010 when the Tories came to power.

Rishi Sunak’s schools test in Budget – The Yorkshire Post says

This before schools see their energy bills, and other costs, soar as the Treasury maintains its grip on local government spending.

As Paul Johnson, director of the Institute of Fiscal Studies, said: “A decade and a half with no growth in spending despite, albeit insipid, economic growth is unprecedented.”

No wonder a senior former Cabinet minister indicated to The Yorkshire Post that they fear there will be no money left for levelling up when schools and skills is so fundamental to its success.

Yet, while Mr Sunak is pleased that his Budget has been compared favourably to New Labour, his record on schools is at odds with Tony Blair’s ‘education, education, education’ zeal.

Today’s pupils and students are tomorrow’s entrepreneurs and wealth-creators. Investing in them now, so they don’t become a lost generation after Covid, is a downpayment on Britain’s future.

It is also levelling up in action. As such, the mystery is why the Chancellor still fails to grasp this when he says that he was motivated to enter politics to improve education.

Either the money has run out – or the Government does not truly realise the importance of social mobility. Which is it, Mr Sunak?

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