Johnson’s schools ‘revolution’ is all about an imminent election. Here’s why it’s fake | Aditya Chakrabortty

A leaked memo, sent to the Department of Education, gives the lie to promises the government plans to make later this week

What’s driving Boris Johnson’s new schools programme, revealed exclusively in the Guardian today? The answer lies not in Downing Street, but 170 miles up the M1, with a revolt in a Cheshire market town. You don’t expect mutiny in Nantwich, but it was here a Tory shires revolt took place.

In February 2017 the main square of the town was packed with locals protesting about the cash crisis in their schools. Their outrage made national news, and it chimed with other shaming stories that were spilling out of classrooms: of cash-strapped headteachers begging pupils to bring in their own loo roll; of teaching assistants getting laid off in droves and staff setting up food banks to feed their own pupils.

I've never come across a policy document warning that government plans will lead to more kids being maimed or killed

Related: Leaked documents reveal Tories' dramatic plans for schools

Related: Dear Gavin Williamson, I hope you’re not thinking of using education as a way of recreating a Victorian society | Michael Rosen

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from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2ZlOo1G