A survey of head teachers reveals a worsening picture of schools funding, with growing staff cuts along with reductions in spending for a range of activities in schools.
Since the abolition of maintenance grants in England, students from lower income backgrounds have been leaving university with the highest levels of debt. A third of students from working class families have skipped meals to save on food costs.
The Sutton Trust says that the next government needs to do much more for the most disadvantaged youngsters, which means increasing funding for low-income pupils, and taking hunger out of the classroom.
The Sutton Trust says only 20 per cent of families earning less than £20,000 a year will have access to the planned expansion of funded places for early years provision, compared to 80 per cent of those with household incomes over £45,000.
New research published by the Sutton Trust has found that there are 155 secondary comprehensives in England that are more socially selective than the average grammar school.