William Croft Speech to the National Grammar School Association

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William Croft Speech to the National Grammar School Association

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Good evening,

It is wonderful to be here tonight at the National Grammar School Association, speaking to you all about one of my major political passions: education. As many of you already know I am the product of a grammar school education, and I don’t think I will ever be able to truly explain how radically the experience changed my life for the better. On paper, Will Croft was never meant to be anything other than the son of a single mother living in a rough London neighbourhood. But by the power of education, and more importantly because my mother had the power to choose where she sent me to school, my life was transformed for the better. I credit the years I spent at my grammar school as the reason why I was able to join the Royal Air Force, dedicate my life to politics, and rise through the ranks of the Conservative Party. The tools they gave me, the experiences I had, and the lessons I learned made me the man I am today. Clearly I could have used a class on, “how to be an effective party leader,” but I’m not going to fault my teachers for that one.

It is so good to be amongst friends who are working to advance the grammar school movement across the United Kingdom, at a time when seemingly every member of the political left has decided to abandon the project. The Conservative Party is the one and only political force in the United Kingdom actively advocating for the preservation and expansion of grammar schools, of greater choice for parents in where they send their children to school, and in the principle of selective education. I say this not to boast about my party, but to reflect upon the sorry state of support for school choice within our country’s political institutions. It is a shame that choice has become so controversial in Westminster, and that it has become all but accepted party policy within New Labour to strip parent’s of their right to choose where they send their children to school. In my view, choice is the great equalizer. It ensures a single mother like mine, who struggles to make ends meet, has the ability to give her child the a fair shot at life regardless of how much money she earns, where she comes from, or what her post code happens to be. In allowing people to choose, we empower individuals to break down barriers of class, privilege, and background in a radical and ambitious way.

My colleague and predecessor, Mrs. Theresa May, has already spoken at length about my party’s enduring support for grammar schools, and for the work your organization is doing to protect them from the destruction the Prime Minister seeks to unleash upon them. So tonight, I would like to talk about something a little different. About the power of selective education and how, in the tradition of the equalizing force grammar schools have provided to the British people for decades, it can be used as a tool to provide a leg up for the most disadvantaged in our society. Because, while grammar schools are a critically important force for good, they are nothing if the free people of this country fail to work together to confront the war against educational choice being waged by the political left. Indeed, my friends, it is a war that we are losing and that we risk losing for good. There is no better way to win that fight, to turn the tide in favor of choice and opportunity in our education system, than by making the affirmative case that proves unequivocally that extending educational choice is the best way possible to uplift disadvantaged young people.

Today Britain faces an epidemic of failing state schools. More schools are set to fail this year than they did in 2000, and more schools failed in 2000 than they did in 1999. While Labour politicians line up for ribbon cutting ceremonies at newly opened schools, they leave behind them the thousands of students who have no choice but to suffer in failed schools that cannot possibly provide them with the education they need and deserve. Because when these schools fail, when Ofsted judges them to be consistently unable to meet the necessary performance targets, the children in these schools have no choice but to carry on and hope for the best. If the families of these students don’t have the money to enroll them in a private school, a simple impossibility for the vast majority of these families, there genuinely is no alternative but to keep their child enrolled in a school they know isn’t up to muster. And with the number of grammar schools dwindling under a Labour Government that would prefer to see them gone altogether, the number of cost-affordable alternatives is drastically falling. Under the status quo, we have created a situation in which students in failing schools are trapped in an educational system bound to fail them with absolutely no recourse or any hope that there may be a light at the end of the tunnel.

That is a status quo that I refuse to stand for, and under a Conservative Government we won’t have to. Tonight, I am pleased to present our newest education policy: The Equity Premium. In a white paper you will have found on your seats, yes I know it's quite a surprise for Cowboy Croft to come prepared, we lay out this radical new proposal that will empower students and families with the choice to improve their situation rather than be chained to a failed school. The Equity Premium is rooted in a simple principle: that children who have been failed by the state deserve to be compensated for that failure, and should be free to use that compensation to get the education they deserve.

The Equity Premium will be an injection of new funding, on average £5,000 per student, that all individual students at schools deemed by Ofsted to have failed will be entitled to. The funding from the Premium will follow the student, meaning that if the student chooses to stay at their existing school it will be given a boost in needed funding. And if they don’t want to wait for their current school to get its act together, they can choose to enroll in a new school that will become the recipient of the Premium’s funding. This ensures that those who choose to stay in their school are learning in better funded classrooms, while enabling students who want to leave and enroll elsewhere to become more attractive recruitment targets as a result of the boost in funding that follows their enrollment. The Equity Premium also makes disadvantaged students advantageous to potential school developers, making it more financially viable and likely for good schools to open up in struggling communities.

We propose that both state and independent schools be permitted to recruit Equity Premium students, and that they do so on a lottery basis. A lottery system ensures the fairest and most equitable form of enrollment, and prevents individual schools from discriminating against certain students on the basis of perceived skills or talent. Critically, it empowers individual families with the agency and power they need to make a legitimate and meaningful choice in their child's future. With the Equity Premium, the doors of opportunity will be opened for every struggling family, and the barriers to access for a good education eliminated entirely. Our scheme gives parents the power to choose the school that is right for their child, and ensures it is financially possible for schools to enroll these students.

The Conservative Party seeks to take money out of the hands of planning bureaucrats obsessed with mindlessly paving over the cracks in the state system, and into the hands of individual families who deserve to have the means to chart their own future. Recognizing that some families will face the additional barrier of not being able to transport their children to a new school that isn’t within the immediate vicinity of their home, a Conservative Government will create Britain’s first ever public transportation system just for students. Similar to the American yellow-bus system, students will be picked up from their homes and transported to and from school. The scheme will be free for families with students receiving free meals, and will cost no more than £1 a day for all other families.

I believe that the circumstances of one’s birth should not be the determining factor in whether or not they are to lead a successful life. But just saying that, and not actually doing anything about it, simply isn’t good enough. Like grammar schools, the Equity Premium puts these words into action and solidifies our commitment to a society where the only thing that determines your success is how hard you’re willing to work for it. I know all of you in the audience tonight recognize that education is the tool through which real equality can be achieved in this country. That means expanding educational opportunity to all people, and to ensuring that disadvantaged children aren’t sentenced to a life of failure simply because of where they were born. Children at failing schools deserve a life line, they deserve a chance to free themselves from a fate they didn’t cause. The Equity Premium does just that, and it symbolizes the Conservative Party’s commitment to utilize school choice as a means to level the playing field.

Thank you very much.

Link to White Paper: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BQ3 ... sp=sharing
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Re: William Croft Speech to the National Grammar School Association

Post by Marty »

I've got a bit of a problem here, because the speech is actually quite good. First and foremost, Brits love people making fun of themselves, and a few of those little jokes at Croft's own expense make him more likeable.

That having been said, the prompt did ask for "how selective education can be the future". That's schools choosing students, not the other way round. Sure, school choice is a part of the appeal of selective education that's still very much alive in the minds of many parents. And to many of those same parents reading about your ideas in sympathetic newspapers, you know, that's going to be very nice.

But what on earth possessed you to tell the National Grammar Schools Association that it'd be a good idea to "recruit Equity Premium students, and that they do so on a lottery basis. A lottery system ensures the fairest and most equitable form of enrollment, and prevents individual schools from discriminating against certain students on the basis of perceived skills or talent." That's literally the opposite of what they like hearing about! They're all about how selective education gets each student, particularly the good ones, a chance to shine (and yes, especially if they're from disadvantaged backgrounds). Telling them that it's a good idea not to look at somebody's qualities, now that's a bit of a problem.

Of course, this is hard. You've got to tell them something new. But what I've done in these instances, for example, is to announce some sort of "Grammar Schools 2.0", or talk about vocational selective education, so that you make grammar schools appear modern.

The momentum may be dented by the audience having a "wait, what" moment, but you're saved by the policy homework you did that does cut through to a more receptive audience via the right-wing press. Still, this speech would've done better in front of, say, NASUWT or a Tory think tank.

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