New grammars would worsen school funding problems, says MP

WESTBURY’S MP, Andrew Murrison, has said the government’s plan to encourage grammar schools could make Wiltshire’s comprehensives worse.

Conservative MP Dr Murrison, who has represented the Westbury area for over 15 years, is sceptical about grammar schools and worries opening new ones will ‘destabilise’ state secondary schools.

He raised concerns earlier in the year when Prime Minister Theresa May announced she wanted to lift an 18-year ban on new grammar schools.

The government announ- ced in its Autumn Statement last month that it would invest £240million in expanding existing grammar schools.

The local MP has again said he doesn’t support the new direction.

Dr Murrison told White Horse News, “I remain uneasy with the government’s plan to create more grammar schools.

“My concern is that, as it stands, such a proposal would destabilise the state schools in my constituency by turning them from comprehensives into secondary moderns.

“It would remove some of the more gifted children and inevitably exert a general downward pressure on academic horizons, just like the old secondary moderns did.”

Public consultation on the Prime Minister’s education reform ended this week. There are currently only two grammar schools in Wiltshire, both in Salisbury, and Andrew Murrison MP says adding more could damage comprehensive schooling in the county.

“With Wiltshire sitting in the lower half of UK schools for funding per pupil, the plans would make a challenging situation worse in my view,” Dr Murrison added. “Let’s keep the grammars we have and leave it there.

“Inner cities have been getting priority funding to lift attainment and it has been working. In my view, areas like ours have been relatively neglected longterm, hence my invitation to the new Education Secretary to visit comprehensives outside the M25, like ours. School buildings are in a particularly parlous state and there is overcrowding.”