by Robert Grice

Created on: December 18, 2011   Last Updated: December 22, 2011

Governments are perpetually seeking ways to motivate and improve school performance especially with students from low socio-economic backgrounds. The United Kingdom is in the process of implementing such a program titled “Pupil Premium.”

The premise of “Pupil Premium” is simple: provide more government funding to schools in order to improve educational services to “disadvantaged” pupils. Participation in “free lunch” programs is the primary means-test for determining poverty at this point.

Purpose

The Department of Education’s website devoted to the “Pupil Premium” program provides a lengthy rational for the new initiative. The Department proposes the program will mitigate current “underlying inequalities” between schools and students in wealthier neighborhoods and in impoverished areas.

Proponents of the program see the program as a way to encourage local administrators and school officials to focus more attention on “disadvantaged” students. Local administrators have the authority to allocate the money to schools in their district that are identified by a large student population of students participating in the free-lunch program.

Local school officials have the freedom to spend the money in their schools in ways they believe will address the specific educational needs of their students. For instance, the funds could be used to reduce class size and to improve one-to-one tutorial assistance. Schools are required to provide a public accounting for how the money will be spent.  

Opposition

The BBC reported the new program is not popular with everyone. Those opposed to the program identify two primary concerns. First, the lack of controls over the allocation of the funds raises concerns about outcomes. Second, the funding of the program means reducing funds for other schools.  

The concerns over outcomes focus on two issues. First, part of the motivation for “Pupil Premium” is a desire to motivate schools in wealthier districts to recruit “disadvantaged” students. The problem is the availability of funds does not guarantee that wealthier schools will follow through with this goal. Second, local school officials may simply try to reinforce and fund programs that are ineffective with this population.

The concerns over funding are that the funds used to sponsor this program will be reallocated from the budgets of other schools. As in most nations affected by economic recession, budgets in the UK are tight and agencies are pressing to maintain their share of the economic “pie.” Opponents argue this program will only weaken high-performing schools over time.

While government officials have sought to ease the fears over the reallocations of current budget funding in order to sponsor the program, the Education Secretary Michael Gove reportedly admitted reallocation of funding from some schools would be necessary.  

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