Nick Clegg announces radical education proposals for England

Today’s the day when the education policy paper going to our Harrogate conference is released to the media.

The official news release doesn’t hold back on the scale of the challenge or the ambitions for the policies:

Nick Clegg announced radical new education policies to fix inequalities in Britain’s ‘class-based education system.’

The plans would narrow the gap between the state and private sector, raising funding for the most disadvantaged pupils to private school levels and delivering extra money to cut infant class sizes to 15.

The proposals will reverse decades of standardisation and centralisation. In its place, more freedoms would be granted to schools, and power would be devolved from national government to local authorities and to an independent Educational Standards Authority.

The measures will be debated at the Liberal Democrats’ spring conference alongside policies for childcare and higher education, placing children and social mobility at the heart of the party’s message to voters.

You can read about the details over on the party website. The paper has also been heavily covered in The Guardian (along with Radio 4’s Toda*, 5 Live’s breakfast show, BBC breakfast and several regional radio station).

UPDATE 1: The Daily Telegraph‘s write-up is here.