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Are tuition fees bad for poor kids? Or for wealthy kids?

I don’t think the tuition fees are what all the students are making them out to be. All this talking about how poor families will be affected by this – I don’t think that’s necessarily true because...

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Schools, Personal Responsibility and Johann Hari

For various economic and political reasons, there's been a great deal of political focus on education over the past few decades.  There's also been an expansion of a school's traditional focuses, away...

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Another incoherent defence of EMA

Lisa Nandy, one of the new Labour MPs, makes another incoherent defence of EMA.  The argument for scrapping EMA is twofold: firstly, the ‘mess’ that Labour supposedly left the unsuspecting Conservative...

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David Mitchell - not got a clue

Incredible article here by David Mitchell. I don't have a problem with non-professionals commenting on politics - obviously I don't, otherwise where would that leave me - but it would nice to think...

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Democracy and basic maths

Here's this weird argument I am hearing again and again that somehow, the current student riots are 'democratic' and the government are 'undemocratic'.So we have a poster on Labour List claiming that...

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Squeezed Middle and Mondeo Man

The Resolution Foundation have an interesting and well-defined (might want to have a look, Ed) paper on low to middle earners, or the squeezed middle.However, they also want to claim that these low to...

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Student Entitlement

I found this link on Guido and it is utterly incredible.  Completely beyond parody. There are students out there who seriously think that their plight is comparable to that of starving African kids....

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Out of touch protestors...and Guardian, Red Ed, Lisa Nandy, CiF, etc.

So the Guardian claim that the student protests yesterday were justified, Red Ed wants to go and join in and Labour MPs are queuing up to show their support.. If you look at the comments on CIF, it...

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NUS on EMA - lies, damned lies, statistics.

One of the biggest claims against the EMA is that of ‘deadweight’. That is, whilst EMA might persuade some kids who wouldn’t have otherwise stayed on to do so, an awful lot of kids who get it would...

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More EMA contradictions - do its defenders even read the evidence they link to?

So I showed here in great detail how Shane Chowen, the NUS vice-president, has managed to cite two academic papers that he claims back up his points about EMA when in fact they completely undermine...

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What are they going to do when the world doesn't fall in?

Here is Toynbee again, engaging in what I would guess is her second favourite activity after picketing Top Shop - spreading misinformation about EMA. I've had her up for this before, when she called...

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Suzanne Moore in the Guardian

Another odd article in the Guardian, this time by Suzanne Moore.She makes this rather startling statement:Little has been said about EMA, a means-tested benefitLittle has been said about it? Does Moore...

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Email to Shane Cowen regarding EMA

I have emailed Shane Cowen of the NUS asking him to correct the factual errors in his briefing paper and acknowledge that EMA is spent on lots of pupils who would be in education otherwise. Here is the...

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Does EMA improve attainment?

Yesterday I published a rather long statistical analysis showing that most EMA money was going to kids who would have stayed on at college without it.  That is, EMA was having very little impact on the...

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Even if a lot of EMA is wasted, won’t it still affect a lot of kids if we...

In my previous two posts (here and here), I spend a long time showing exactly how and why so much EMA money is wasted – on kids who would be at school studying just as hard without it, and on kids who...

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Do college students need EMA to pay for transport costs?

EMA was originally called the Educational Maintenance Allowance (Transport), and even though it's changed its name, one of the big reasons why people say it's needed is to pay for transport costs....

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Update: I was wrong. EMA is EVEN WORSE than I thought...

I was wrong – EMA is even more of a waste than I thought.In this post on the issue of EMA deadweight, I analysed a report by CBfT which the NUS had cited wrongly.The NUS had cited it wrongly – but what...

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Response to Anthony Painter

I wanted to put this in the comments page here but it was too long.In summary:Essentially, for all your quibbles, you agree with my statistics but quibble about the analysis. You agree that EMA...

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What Labour think is cost-effective

Anthony Painter has responded to my post here defending EMA and I have responded here because my post wouldn't fit in the comments box.  I’m assuming that he is this Anthony Painter, prospective Labour...

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No stats - the moral case for abolishing EMA

I have blogged a lot about the economical and statistical effects of EMA, but it's as well to point out that this is not my only objection to EMA.Scroll to just over four minutes in to hear what he has...

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Not chucking printers at someone = being exceptionally close to them

A friend sent me this article by Richard Grayson.Basically, Grayson, former Lib Dem director of policy, argues that the Lib Dems should start thinking about a coalition with Labour. Nothing wrong with...

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Further response to Anthony Painter

I am in italics.Thank you for the response. And you are right to say that my major issue is with your analysis rather than your statistics. Yes, ultimately I agree that our disagreement is analytical,...

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The dartboard theory of public spending

Overall, the establishment and defence of EMA are examples of what I might call the dartboard theory of public spending, where the dartboard represents the social problem to be fixed and the blind...

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The IFS on EMA, again, courtesy of Channel Four

I am writing this early Tuesday morning. There is an interesting article on the Channel Four blog which suggests that later today the IFS are going to publish a paper suggesting that the costs of EMA...

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Summary of my EMA posts

Educational Maintenance Allowance is an allowance of between £10 and £30 a week paid to 16-19 year olds from low-earning backgrounds who stayed on in further education. Its original aims were to...

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