Rushanara Ali
Main Page: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Stepney)Department Debates - View all Rushanara Ali's debates with the Department for Education
College Funding
Rushanara Ali Excerpts(5 years, 10 months ago)
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Daniel Zeichner
Characteristically, I completely agree with my right hon. Friend. Of course, he has been campaigning on these issues very powerfully; I just hope that people are listening.
Let me give some of the numbers. According to the House of Commons Library, in 2010 the average funding allocation was £4,633 per student. The 16 and 17-year-old funding rate has been frozen at £4,000 since 2013-14. The rate for 18-year-olds was cut to £3,300 in 2014-15 and has remained frozen since then. Funding per student aged 16 to 18 has seen the biggest squeeze of all stages of education for young people in recent years. By 2019-20, funding per young person in further education will be about the same as it was in 2006-07—only 10% higher than it was 30 years earlier.
Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow) (Lab)
Does my hon. Friend agree that the £3.3 billion of cuts in further education since 2010 is utterly devastating and, given the higher proportion of working-class students attending further education colleges—I was one of them—does he agree that this Government are hell-bent on making life a misery for working-class people in this country?
Daniel Zeichner
My hon. Friend makes the point very powerfully. As I said, I see the divide in my own city. She is absolutely right.