Lib-Dems' Nick Clegg pledges £2.5 billion for poorer pupils

Pledge: Nick Clegg wants to scrap tax credits for better-off families
12 April 2012

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg promised today to scrap tax credits for better-off families and channel £2.5 billion more into schooling for the under-privileged.

The link between financial disadvantage and low achievement in the classroom was "as bad as it was" despite Labour's investment in education, he said.

"I think what we want, as we try and get out of this recession and rebuild a country which is fairer, is a school system that gives every single child a chance to get ahead, to live out their dreams, to fulfil their potential, irrespective of where they live, irrespective of where they were born," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

Mr Clegg said the Lib Dems would find £2.5 billion for extra tuition and to reduce class sizes in less advantaged areas.

More than half of that - £1.5 billion - would be raised by taking away tax credits from above-average income families.

The other £1 billion would come from introducing "very radical" changes in quangos and inspection regimes, and scrapping the ContactPoint database.

"One of the biggest challenges we face as a country is breaking this link between financial deprivation at home and educational under-achievement in the classroom," Mr Clegg went on.

"It is the thing that has held our country back for generations. We haven't cracked it despite all the money that's gone in from Labour. It's still as bad as it was."

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