I’m not a number on a balance sheet, Michael Gove

State schools could be run for profit hinted Education Secretary Michael Gove during his Leveson Inquiry appearance this week, giving the clearest indication yet of the direction he wishes to take Conservative education policy. When asked whether he hoped free schools would be able to make profits beyond the current parliament he said: “It’s my belief that we could move to that situation but at the moment it’s important to recognise that the free schools movement is succeeding without that element and I think we should cross that bridge when we come to it.”

By even contemplating such a move, the Tory Education Secretary is playing with fire. A Populus poll published only three months ago found huge public opposition to state schools being run for profit, with three quarters of respondents saying they would be ‘concerned’ by such a move. Gove is also paving the way for another Coalition scrap, with his words at Leveson standing in marked contrast to Nick Clegg’s in a speech last year: “Let me reassure you … ‘no’ to running schools for a profit”. Not that those words mean much though, as this is the man who also said his party would “resist, vote against, campaign against any lifting of the tuition fees cap”, and look how that pledge turned out.

Labour must commit itself to defending the notion of schools being run solely with the interests of children and young people put first. Under a profit-run system, students like many of my friends and I would come second behind the need to make money. We have to ask ourselves, what are our priorities? Is it to be a country that allows private companies to use Britain’s young people as a means to profit, or ensures those young people have an education where they are put first, and where their learning experience is paramount? We have seen over recent months just where David Cameron’s priorities are: letting millionaires off the hook whilst making millions pay more. Is it any wonder Michael Gove feels able to float this proposal? Labour needs to firmly and uncompromisingly say “no” to the idea of profit-run state-schools and campaign energetically against any such proposals.

Britain should not be a country where a child is forced into an institution to make someone else money. Such a principle undermines the entire level of trust on which a school is built. I can see a situation where school kids tell Michael Gove where to stick his ‘for-profit’ motive as they realise that education is no longer about equipping them with the vital skills they need, but instead about lining the pockets of Tory donors.

If private companies are permitted to come in and make a profit, it is inevitable that savings will have to be made to enable a profit to be generated. In profit-run schools in other countries (such as Sweden), the ratio of teachers to pupils is significantly lower than their entirely state-run counterparts. At the end of the day it is pupils who will suffer with fewer teachers, less equipment and less training for the many, all in the name of more profit for a few.

Labour needs to take the fight to this government over any such proposals, and stand firm in its commitment to an education system where children and young people come first.