Molly Scott Cato joins March for Education in Bristol

Speaking at the march, Molly, who stood alongside parents, teachers and children, said:

“People are taking to the streets because these Tory funding cuts are an outrage – we’re fighting with and on behalf of parents, children and teachers alike. As a Green politician and a parent, I know only too well how urgently we need to protect our schools and our children’s futures.”

“The education system in Bristol, under the Tories, is already under immense pressure, £33m cuts [2] will make it that much harder for teachers and headteachers to do their jobs – and put an estimated 1000 jobs at risk [3].”

“Such vast cuts will have an unavoidable negative impact on the quality of education available to pupils across Bristol. We’re already seeing schools like Redland Green [4] and Olympus [5] feeling forced to go cap in hand to parents as the funding crisis hits critical levels.”

“These cuts are particularly hard to stomach when viewed alongside plans for billions of pounds of education funding to be diverted into Theresa May’s grammar schools vanity projects and Cameron’s inefficient, underused and chaotic free school failures.”

Parents, teachers, headteachers, the Green Party, unions, and high-ranking Conservative politicians have been among the most vocal critics of the Prime Minister’s funding shake-up. Molly added:

“That some of the loudest critical voices against Theresa May’s plans are coming from Conservative politicians is as much a failure of a weak and divided Labour Party to provide a united opposition as it is a signal of just how destructive the cuts will be.”

“Greens have pledged to invest £7billion in the education system to fill the funding gap created by years of underinvestment and cuts and so create an education system that can positively transform lives [6]. If elected as your MP, I pledge to stand united with teachers, parents, and my Green colleagues in the House of Commons to resist these cuts and fight to protect our schools in Bristol and across the country.”