Onward Bulletin 09/02/2021
The latest research, events and news straight to your inbox every Tuesday.
Hello and welcome to Onward’s weekly summary of research, events and opinion. We hope you enjoy it. If you do, tell your friends or donate to support our work.
Onward activity
WE ARE HIRING: Onward is looking for an Events and Fundraising Assistant and a Policy Researcher to join our growing team. Please do share with anyone you think might be interested, click here to find out more.
AHEAD OF THE BUDGET: We are hosting Rupert Harrison, David Gauke and Lizzy Burden on 23rd February to discuss the Chancellor’s choices, political priorities and wider economic agenda ahead of March 3rd. Register here.
FROM CLIMATE CHANGE TO HOSPITALITY. Last week we held two events, a public panel event considering how we continue to battle climate change in the wake of a pandemic with Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP (full summary and recording here) and a private roundtable on the future of the hospitality industry with Paul Scully MP (full summary of the discussion here). If you are interested in partnering with us for future events, please contact Katie Fairclough.
A NEW PROPERTY TAX? Will Tanner was quoted in the Telegraph last week discussing calls to reform the council tax system, noting our findings that Londoners pay half as much council tax than those in the North East.
By the upcoming half term, children will have lost half a school year of face-to-face education.
The IFS has found that losing a year of school could reduce pupils' lifetime earnings by up to 8%, an average £40,000 in income over their lifetime. In total, that amounts to a staggering £350 billion in lost earnings from 8.7 million pupils. The subsequent learning loss will be far higher among disadvantaged pupils. The LSE found that during the first lockdown twice as many private school pupils (74%) benefited from full school days as those in the state sector (38%).
That's why reports this weekend that the Government is considering reforms to mitigate pandemic learning loss vitally important. The proposals include lengthening the school day, a major tutoring service to help children catch up, a shorter school holiday this summer, and more school sport.
These are all good ideas. Last year Jonathan Gullis MP - himself a former teacher - made the case for shorter school holidays in an Onward paper. But, as Jonathan argued then, this should not just be about catch up. It should be about long-term reform of the education system to improve outcomes, especially for the most disadvantaged.
Successive education secretaries have favoured extending the school day and reducing long school holidays. None has been able to win the inevitable battle with unions. But, just as Rab Butler understood when he designed and delivered the modern education system in 1944, crises can be the precursor for far-reaching change. If the pandemic proves the same, it will be long overdue.
Policy Bites
The Chancellor is considering introducing an online sales tax to replace business rates, according to reports in the weekend newspapers. Link.
The Business Secretary will this week launch a White Paper on corporate governance, following the Kingman Review. Link.
Almost 200 UK academics are being investigated for unwittingly transferring world-leading research at British universities to China. Read Onward's research on the risks of universities' reliance on China here. Link.
Quick links
The State of the Union. A must-read interview with leading pollster Sir John Curtice discussing what Scottish independence polls are telling us and how this can help make the case for the Union. Link.
Examining the education system. James Forsyth considers a range of proposals to help children catch up on lost learning. Link.
Across the pond. The Atlantic looks at school closures in the States, the link between Trump’s 2016 vote share and what this could mean for the future of schooling. Link.
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