POLITICS

A failing comprehensive will be the first state school in the country to be put in the hands of a private management company by its local education authority. Councillors have decided that the running of Kings' Manor Comprehensive in Guildford, Surrey, will be put out to private tender.
Tory-controlled Surrey County Council had considered closing the 900 capacity school, which now has only 400 pupils and does not use half its classrooms.
But the new managers would receive a fee and would be eligible for performance related bonuses. This would make it possible to make a profit out of running a state school.
Unions are concerned. The General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Doug McAvoy, has called on the Education Secretary, David Blunkett, to enforce his pledge that no company will make a profit out of state education.
And The General Secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, Peter Smith, said: "This is a Tory local authority playing politics with the Labour government.
"It would be an irony if a Labour government, of all governments, were to start dismantling the public education service."
(source: BBC)

New figures show the number of people living on the poverty line is increasing, and the poor are getting poorer.
The government survey shows nearly 14 million people are now living in households whose incomes fall below half average income.
While average incomes have increased by 40% since 1979, those in the very lowest 10% of earners have experienced a drop of 5% in earnings after housing costs were taken into account.
Bharti Patel from the Low Pay Unit says debt is a major problem among low income households.
The Department of Social Security (DSS) said the fall in incomes for the poorest was caused by the rise in the number of families out of work during the same period.
Figures also revealed that those at the top of income distribution have experienced much greater rises in recent years than those at the bottom.
The number of children growing up in lowest income households has also increased substantially to almost one in three.
(source: BBC)

And all this in just one days news!