ABSTRACT
Some idea of the scale of the state’s role in education is given by changes in money spent in this area, and figures on this are given in Table 8.1. This shows that expenditure growth was much faster at the end of the period than at the beginning, in real terms rising an average of 3.3 per cent per annum in 1951-5, compared with 6.3 per cent in 1959-63. The pattern in the early years reflected the attempt by R.A.Butler, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to hold expenditure down coupled with a weak Minister of Education. From 1954, however, David Eccles took over the latter office, and became a key figure in the education issue in the period down to 1962. Largely under his aegis public spending on education was to almost double its share of public spending (from 6.9 per cent in 1951 to 12.8 per cent in 1963), and to raise its share of GDP from 3.2 to 4.6 per cent.3
