ABSTRACT
Not only that, but the Conservative governments also stopped redistributive, positive discrimination funding for schools. Decisions about funding were substantially taken out of the hands of the democratically elected local education authorities (LEAs) by the imposition of per capita funding for pupils/school students. So students in poor/disadvantaged areas in an LEA would receive the same per capita funding as “rich kids.” Furthermore, this funding rose or fell according to intake numbers of pupils/students, itself affected by henceforth compulsorily publicized “league table” performance according to pupil/student performance at various ages on SATs (Student Assessment Tasks) and 16+ examination results. (This “equality of treatment” contrasts dramatically with the attempts, prior to the 1988 Education Reform Act, of many LEAs to secure more “equality of opportunity” by spending more on those with greatest needs-a power partially restored in one of its social democratic polices by the New Labour government following its election in 1997).
