‘Education spending skewed towards the poor’
A “REMARKABLE” shift in education funding from middle-class children to those from poorer backgrounds means that spending is now “skewed” towards the less well-off, a report has said.
But the Institute for Fiscal Studies paper said the change does not appear to have translated into a reduction in the attainment gap between children from different backgrounds.
Historically, state education spending in England has been heavily weighted towards wealthy families, with those from the richest fifth receiving almost £6,000 more over their formal education career than those from the poorest fifth as recently as 2003. But initiatives such as the pupil premium, as well as widening participation in higher education, brought the total spend to about £73,000 for all 16-year-olds in 2010, regardless of social class.
And those from poorer backgrounds are believed to have drawn ahead in the following years.
“This is a remarkable change over time,” said the IFS report. A system that was substantially skewed in funding terms towards the better off is now, if anything, skewed towards the least well off.”
But the report added: “It is ... disappointing that these seemingly positive changes in the distribution of education funding do not seem to have translated into big reductions in the attainment gap between richer and poorer pupils.”
The report’s co-author Luke Sibieta said: “In less than a decade over the 2000s, education spending shifted from being skewed towards richer pupils to being skewed towards poorer pupils instead. This is a remarkable shift.”