(posted 7497 days ago)Minister pours scorn on vouchers proposal
Lucy Ward, education correspondent
Tuesday October 14, 2003The Guardian
The schools minister, David Miliband, yesterday accused the Conservatives of seeking to provide ways to "escape from state education" after the shadow home secretary, Oliver Letwin, was forced to apologise for an attack on his local state school.Mr Miliband, presenting awards for achievement in inner city schools, marked out the issue of improvement in struggling schools as a key policy battleground between political parties.
The government aimed to support schools in difficult areas whereas the Tories, who plan an education voucher scheme for parents in inner cities, did not share that ambition, he said.
At last week's Tory conference, Mr Letwin said he would "go out on the streets and beg" rather than send his 10-year-old twins to the state school close to his London home.
Mr Letwin later apologised to the Lilian Baylis school in Kennington, but said he re mained "passionate" about his party's school passports plan. The scheme, an attempt to use market methods to improve school performance, would give parents in inner city areas vouchers worth £3,500 to send their children to the school of their choice.
Mr Miliband said the GCSE results for 2002-03 showed performance in authorities targeted under the government's Excellence in Cities programme improved at more than double the rate of schools nationally.
He said: "The Conservatives talk about escaping from state education and the government is talking about improving state education.
"There are many schools we want to see get much better and we will take no lessons from anyone about the need to be ambitious for improvement."
Mr Miliband presented 15 awards to pupils, teachers and mentors from schools involved in the programme, which aims to raise the achievement of pupils and tackle truancy.