Following today’s data release from the Department for Education, which revealed that the number of school pupils with special educational needs has risen for the third year in a row, Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Layla Moran MP said: “Cash-strapped schools are struggling to support our children with the most complex barriers to learning. Teaching assistants and other support staff are being cut. Conservative cuts to schools and councils mean that more than 9 in 10 councils face a funding shortfall for pupils with high needs, and today’s figures show these budgets will be squeezed further. The Government is failing the children most in need. “Liberal Democrats would reverse school cuts with an emergency cash injection and provide more money for children with the most complex needs, so that every child can get the best start in life.” Today’s data release from the Department for Education, reveals that, in January 2019:

Responding to the publication of a new report by the CBI, Getting young people ‘work ready’, which calls for the Government to rethink the qualifications system and to add a creative subject into the English Baccalaureate, Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Layla Moran MP said: “When the English Baccalaureate was introduced, Ministers said they wanted pupils to take subjects that employers and universities valued most. The fact that the CBI no longer defends the EBacc in its current form should act as a wake-up call that it is not fit for purpose. “Businesses want employees with the creativity, character and transferable skills to thrive in the modern workplace. Yet our high-stakes testing culture is encouraging schools to focus relentlessly on just a handful of subjects and on teaching to the test. “If our children are going to thrive as tomorrow’s workers and citizens, our education system needs overhauling. Liberal Democrats would scrap the EBacc and replace league tables with a broader set of criteria for parents to evaluate schools by, so that children get the rounded educational experience they need.”

Liberal Democrat Education spokesperson Layla Moran will today [22 June] use a speech at the ‘Together for Education Rally’ in Westminster to call on the Conservative Party leadership contenders to reverse cuts to schools.  According to the campaign, 91% of schools have suffered per-pupil funding cuts in real terms since 2015. It would cost £2.2 billion to bring funding back up to 2015 levels. In a bid to reverse these cuts, parents, MPs, councillors and trade unionists will meet in London this Saturday for the Together for Education rally. Liberal Democrat Education spokesperson Layla Moran is expected to say:  “The Conservatives have cut schools to the bone. “But now, their leadership contenders have had an apparent change of heart. Boris and […] are trying to outbid each other on schools funding Theresa May wants to steal their thunder by announcing new money for schools before either one of them gets the keys to Number 10. “All three of these people sit or have sat around the Cabinet table. They’ve stood up for the Government in the House of Commons or in the TV studio. If they want more money for schools, they’ve had the power to give it to them for years! “Try saying to a child on the autism spectrum who’s had their teaching assistant taken away, or the parent who now has to leave work early to pick their child up from school on a Friday lunchtime, that the reason their school isn’t properly funded is because Boris Johnson and [XXX] want to make a snazzy leadership election pledge. “Tell them that Theresa May has held money back for schools so that she can spite her successor. See what they say. “If you wanted evidence that school cuts are a political choice, this is it. This is putting party before country. Personal ambition before our children’s future. “Friends, this is not the way to run our schools. It’s time for the Tories to put their egos to one side, put their money where their mouths are and give schools the cash they need now.”

The Liberal Democrats have called for local councils to be given back control of the school admissions process following new data released today by the Department for Education which reveals that the proportion of pupils getting their first choice of secondary school has fallen for the sixth year in a row.

Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson Layla Moran made a speech to the NAHT Conference in Telford, slamming the Conservative government's school funding cuts by stating they were a "a political choice".