I remember how it was -- JR
UK: Student finance overhaul will punish poorer graduates while top-earners pay less, ministers warned
A shake-up of university finance will punish poorer students while top-earning graduates pay less, ministers are being warned – as a call to bring back maintenance grants is rejected.
The long-delayed response to a review ordered by Theresa May also throws out a recommendation to slash annual tuition fees from £9,250 to £7,500, made because of fears that high debt deters disadvantaged teenagers.
Instead, fees will be frozen, while graduates will feel the pain of a cut in the threshold to start repayments from £27,295 a year to £25,000, to “make the system fairer for the taxpayer”, ministers say.
As expected, in a further cost-cutting move, students will be blocked from taking out loans – and, effectively for all but the richest, from going to university – if they fail to get strong GCSE or A-level grades.
The government will seek to sweeten the pill by scrapping interest on new loans, while a new “lifelong loan entitlement” will allow people to “retrain flexibly at any time in their lives”.
But Labour described the package – three years after the Augar report was published – as “another stealth tax for new graduates”, which would be “slamming the door on opportunity”.
The Education Policy Institute think tank warned it would be “regressive” and threatened to hit “students from disadvantaged backgrounds”.
“These policies are likely to result in lower- to middle-earning graduates paying more than they currently do, while higher earning graduates are likely to pay less,” said David Robinson, its director of post-16 and skills.
The chair of the parliamentary All-Party Group for Students, Paul Blomfield, attacked the dropping of the “important proposal for the reintroduction of maintenance grants for the poorest students”.
He also warned: “Freezing tuition fees, without additional teaching grant, reduces resources available to universities and means future students will be paying more for less.”
And Larissa Kennedy, president of the National Union of Students, said: “This government parrots the language of levelling up, but these proposals are classist, ableist and racist: they target those from marginalised communities, and seek to gatekeep education.”
The package, which will go out to consultation, will:
* Freeze maximum fees at £9,250 a year until 2025, meaning they will not have risen for seven years – while rejecting a cut to £7,500.
* Cut the repayment threshold to £25,000 for students starting courses from September 2023 until 2027 – despite the backlash against the recently announced freeze.
* Link the student loan interest rate to the – higher – RPI measure of inflation, scrapping interest for students from 2023, both during studies and after graduation.
* Extend the period before loans are written off from 30 to 40 years for new students – meaning many will be nearing retirement before they are out of debt.
* Deny loans to students who fail to achieve at least two Es at A-Level or at least a grade 4 pass in English and maths at GCSE.
* Promise almost £900m of new investment in higher education over three years – including £300m of day-today spending and £450m in capital funding.
Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, said the changes would “create a fairer system for both students and the taxpayer”, while making “higher education accessible and accountable”.
“This package of reforms will ensure students are being offered a range of different pathways, whether that is higher or further education, that lead to opportunities with the best outcomes,” he said.
But the document makes little attempt to hide that the motive is to save money, calling the current funding system “unsustainable” – with student loans totalling £161bn in April 2021.
Without action, those loans will reach more than half a trillion pounds in 20 years, ministers say, by which point only 23 per cent of new borrowers will be repaying them in full.
Taxpayers – most of whom have not been to university – are funding 44p of every pound of student loans, but will pay less than 20p under the new system, they argue.
The Augar report, published in the dying days of Theresa May’s government, saw her plea for the return of maintenance grants for low-income students, axed by George Osborne in 2015.
But, speaking in May 2019, the outgoing prime minister admitted it would be a decision for her successor.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/student-fees-loans-repayment-zahawi-b2021696.html
*********************************************Transgender Berkeley English professor who backed burning of books is suspended by Twitter
A transgender Berkeley English professor who once backed the burning of books was suspended from Twitter after tweeting to the UK government that she hoped the Queen of England would die of COVID.
Prof. Grace Lavery, a prominent trans activist, was in a Twitter spat on Sunday with an anti-trans advocate when the person accused Lavery of wanting to incite public disorder with her upcoming tour around the UK to promote her memoir next month.
During the back-and-forth, Lavery snapped that: 'I hope the queen dies' in a tweet that also tagged the UK government.
The post came as Queen Elizabeth, 95, tested positive for COVID-19.
Twitter quickly suspended her account in response.
She told DailyMail.com that she supported people being canceled on social media - but apparently that does not apply to her.
Lavery said: 'I wholly support social media platforms taking action against harassment.
'I do not think they should ban people for hoping that public figures die, whether the person in question is Elizabeth Windsor, Donald Trump, or Jeremy Corbyn,' Lavery said, the latter referring to a member of the UK's Labour Party that was suspended from the party in 2020 over anti-Semitic comments.
She also complained that her Twitter ban was suppressing her freedom of speech.
'Bans on discussing the Queen's death additionally have the (presumably unintended) effect of suppressing speech about the line of succession,' she said.
'I'm not expecting any of the free speech activists to get incensed about this, of course, but their hypocrisy is nonetheless pungent.'
UC Berkeley decline to comment on the issue, saying Lavery acted as an individual and that she has her right to freedom of speech.
After being suspended from the platform and facing backlash, Lavery went on to Instagram to further insult the British queen in a sarcastic post paired up with the Sex Pistol's 'God Save the Queen.'
'I certainly do *not* wish for the reintroduction of the guillotine, nor the public seizure of all lands and entitlements reserved by the Windsors, nor do I crave to appear on the front of the Daily Mail dressed in my (unmarried) mother's bridal veil' she wrote.
'Under no circumstances would I describe the Windsors as cruel, bloodsucking molesters and sponges, each of significantly below average intelligence even for the degenerate British ruling class; and at no price could anyone compel me to declare Elizabeth Regina an impassive, thoughtless windbag, as incapable of saying anything more thoughtful than a Tory's guff, as she is undeserving of even a legacy place in a second-rate provincial grammar school.
'We love our queen. God saves. Shine on, ma'am! (rhymes with SCAM).'
The post was preceded by Lavery echoing the words of others who stood by the queen and her decades on the throne.
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Australian parents turn to religious schools as public enrolments slide
Australia has recorded its most significant shift in school enrolments since 2008, with 6,388 fewer Australian students in the public system in 2021 — meaning less funding for state schools while private schools will see a windfall.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) annual schools report, the number of public primary and secondary students fell by 0.2 per cent in 2021, with low-fee independent Islamic and Anglican schools in the suburbs picking up the most new students.
The move from public schools was greatest in primary years, with 0.8 per cent of students leaving.
Overall, independent schools grew by 2.2 per cent across Australia, or 30,101 extra pupils.
The ABS said Australia's closed borders and the first net loss of migrants since 1946 was influential in the trend, with new arrivals generally guaranteeing growth at public schools.
Public schools receive $14,776 per student in a combination of state and commonwealth funding, so a drop of 6,388 students means $94,389,088 less for public schools. Meanwhile, funding to the private sector, which receives $11,724 on average per student, is expected to rise by $352,904,124.
It's money that will be gratefully received at schools like the Australian International Academy, a fast-growing Islamic school with three campuses in Sydney's outer western suburbs.
Principal Mona Abdel-Fattah started the school a decade ago with just 19 pupils. Today, there are 611, with more joining at the start of every year.
"It's almost a hundred a year, and at the moment, there are classes where we cannot accept any more students," Ms Abdel-Fattah said.
Ms Abdel-Fattah said the attraction for many of the young families in the area was the extra moral guidance and shared faith.
"A big attraction at our school is the Islamic environment. It's the identity, the care, the compassion," she said.
Islamic schools see huge growth as families prioritise values
Nasha Mohammed moved her 13-year-old daughter Lujain and 10- and six-year-old siblings Layan and Alfarouk from the state system to the Islamic school at the start of the year.
Mrs Mohammed made the decision because her daughter was entering high school and she wanted to prioritise values.
"I wanted her to be around people who pray the same way, are brought up the same way and have the same priorities and same ideas," Mrs Mohammed said.
Mrs Mohammed had a great experience at the public school her children attended last year, but as a busy mum decided to move Layan and Alfarouk as well.
"I wasn't really sure but I thought as a parent I thought it would be easier to drop them off in the same spot and pick them up at the end of the day," Mrs Mohammed said.
Lujain Mohammed said the smaller class sizes allowed her teachers to give her more attention.
"They know more about students' health and wellbeing," she said.
Nationally, Islamic schools have enjoyed enormous growth, with the number of students tripling over the past 15 years.
Last year's Australia Talks survey found parents at independent and Catholic schools had the highest rates of parental satisfaction, leading to calls for an investment in the public system.
Pressure on public schools expected to grow after recent baby boom
Leading International education expert Pasi Sahlberg, from the Gonski Institute at the University of New South Wales, said it would not be the last tough year for public education.
"Governments need to take the responsibility to make sure that the neighbourhood public schools [are] always good enough … for all children," Professor Sahlberg said.
"When this doesn't happen, for example due to insufficient resourcing of these schools, I'm afraid we are going to see trends similar to education statistics published today also in the future."
Professor Sahlberg and other education experts expect pressure on the public system to grow after a recent baby boom.
"This means new schools and many more teachers that need to be available as these numbers grow," he said.
"It is important that the governments will invest in their public infrastructure and human resources to secure a good school and trained teacher for every child."
Independent schools across Australia have welcomed the figures.
In New South Wales, the growth means that for the first time independent schools have more students than the Catholic sector, which set up its first school in Australia in the 19th century.
"This record growth now makes the independent school sector the second largest in NSW and reflects the confidence and satisfaction of parents from across the socio-economic spectrum," Association of Independent Schools New South Wales chief executive Geoff Newcombe said.
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My other blogs: Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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