Kezia Dugdale: Rich will help fund £500m schools drive

LABOUR leader Kezia Dugdale has today said her plans for tax hikes on high earners will help fund a half billion pound drive to cut the gap in schooling standards between rich and poor areas of the country.

Labour leader Kezia Dugdale. Picture: Hemedia

The Labour plans would mean an extra £1000 for every primary pupil from a deprived background in Scotland, with teachers given the power to decide how the extra money is spent.

Ms Dugdale is today visiting St Andrew’s Secondary School in Glasgow which was featured in a television documentary with Sir Tom Hunter on the state of Scottish education.

Labour recently proposed a 1 pence rise in taxes for all Scots, with poorer workers to be compensated with a rebate, in order to fund education and tackle the impact of looming cuys next year, but the move was rejected by the SNP Government.

Ms Dugdale said today: “Faced with the choice between using the powers of the Parliament to invest in the future or carrying on with the SNP’s cuts to schools, Labour will always choose to use the powers.

“Under my plan the wealthiest few would pay the most, including those earning more than £150,000 a year. I want to use that extra money to put power into the hands of teachers, who are best placed to take decisions about how we close the gap between the richest and the rest.”

Labour says the extra money it raises could be used to fund additional teachers, classroom assistants or other initiatives.

Finance Secretary John Swinney recently announced £160 million for the attainment challenge fund over the next three years. Ms Dugdale said the funds raised from her 50p rate and the existing attainment fund would mean almost half a billion pounds for closing the attainment gap in the next parliament.

Nicola Sturgeon has also pledged to drive the attaintment gap in Scotland’s schools and insists it is the issue she wants to be “judged on” as first Minister.

Ms Dugdale added: “The most important economic investment we can make in our country’s future is in education, and the most important policy we can pursue in education is cutting the gap between the richest and the rest.

“The SNP’s budget cuts to our schools will only make that gap wider. Fewer classroom assistants, specialist teachers and materials will put at risk the success of so many schools across the country.

“Too often by the time young people get to secondary school there is already a massive difference between the richest and the rest, with 6,000 pupils in Scotland leaving primary school unable to read properly. We need children to master the basics at primary so that when they get to secondary school they can start to develop the skills they need to compete for the jobs of the future.

“Talent, work ethic and potential should define a child’s life chances, not how much money their parents have.”