Michael Gove MP, Conservative Shadow Secretary of State for Education, visited Wyre Forest on Friday to meet with local teachers and schools. The visit was organised by Mark Garnier and was very kindly hosted by Kidderminster's Baxter College.
Michael Gove was visiting Wyre Forest to share with local teachers his vision of what education might look like under a Conservative Government. Importantly, though, the meeting was a two way discussion between Michael and teachers, with Michael listening to the views of local teachers.
Mark Garnier, as the Wyre Forest's Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman, was keen that a couple of local issues were discussed.
With regard the central funding of per pupil spend - the amount the government guarantees that is spent on each pupil - Mark has been closely involved in redressing the imbalance that puts Worcester tenth lowest of 151 education authorities. Michael assured the group that Conservative approach to this would be that, over time, the imbalance would be redressed by granting higher than average annual increases to the lower funded areas, with lower than average to the higher funded. IN this way Worcestershire would, over time, see a relative increase in funding, thus lessening the impact of local problems.
With regard the building schools for the future programme, Michael assured the group that should the process have started by the time any future Conservative government was in power, it was unlikely to reverse the process.
Mark Garnier said of the meeting: "I was delighted that Michael was able to come to Wyre Forest to share with us his ideas for Conservative education policy. It is incredibly important that local teachers are given the opportunity to be able to talk directly with the man who may be running this country's education after the next election, and to put forward their point of view.
"With regard local issues, I am pleased that Michael will be starting the process to bring fairer funding for local kids. This is important and I am also reassured that we will see the investment into the schools locally. This is something that I am personally committed to and I see it very much as my job - if elected next year - to help with the BSF programme in Wyre Forest.
"I also want to say a special thank you to Dave Seddon and his team at Baxter for hosting this event. Baxter is an extraordinary example of a school that has done incredible work and their work is an example of stunning achievement."