§ 12. Mrs. Maureen HicksTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what communications he has received from the directors of further education colleges concerning his statement on 21 March; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeMy Department has received a substantial number of responses from principals of further education colleges about our proposals to remove colleges from local authority control. Their comments have been overwhelmingly favourable.
§ Mrs. HicksDoes it come as a surprise to my right hon. and learned Friend to hear that when I recently met a group of directors of polytechnics, not one of them wanted to go back to local authority control? Would not that be the same for further education colleges once they have freedom from the political Labour local authorities which constrained them and the opportunity to manage their own affairs? In my own area of Wolverhampton can it be right that the chairman was not only a Labour councillor but is now the prospective Labour parliamentary candidate? Is not that political bias of the worst sort?
§ Mr. ClarkeLike my hon. Friend, I have never met a director of a polytechnic who wanted to return to local authority control; I have never met a head teacher of a grant-maintained school who wanted to return to local authority control; I have never met a head teacher of a school with a fully delegated LMS budget who wanted all the money to be placed in the hands of the local authority. Yet the Labour party in Wolverhampton and elsewhere defends bureaucratic local government control of all education to the last ditch.