"The Select Committee is right to point to the potential storm on the horizon for education spending, created by the financial crisis. It is vital, therefore, that education funding maintains its upward trajectory so that Gordon Brown's commitment to matching spending for schools in the state sector with that of the private sector is realised.
"It is about time that the Private Finance Initiative for school building was laid to rest. The Select Committee is right to question the future viability of PFI. The NUT has always opposed this expensive and burdensome approach to building schools. With the collapse in property prices and the looming recession, the Government should take the decisive step and end PFI.
"I am deeply concerned that schools in deprived areas are not receiving their full share of funding. The existence of Academies, as the Select Committee says, further undermines the capacity of local authorities to distribute school funding equitably; which is a further argument for ending Academy status."
