Looming over the legislature is a nearly year-old court ruling that declared the state’s education funding system to be unconstitutionally inequitable and ordered lawmakers to correct it.
it s been a lifeline for brian, an artist who came here after finding himself living on the streets. all the time i was worried sick because i was living in a tent. i come back to find the thing was burnt down or they burn it down while i was in it, or the police move us on. and since i ve come here, obviously that s not been the case. they ve kind of given me my life back a bit, really. the support services here are funded by the council, but that grant could be withdrawn and the centre says without it they will struggle to stay open. it is and always was a really caring local authority providing that support for people that can t get supported anywhere else because of inflation. they can t afford to do that any more. and so people will end up on the streets because of that. the council s having to find savings as costs and demand for services increase. they re calling for a new funding system, frank about the situation they re facing.
i have no vote in that and it s quite right that i should have no voice in that. let s turn to your agenda for schools. what s set out in your book and what has been your life s work in many ways. imagine i make you education secretary for a day. happy days. other than pay, we know what you d do on pay, what would you do? oh, well, i mean, the agenda would last longer than a day. but what i would do, i think, first of all is, well, i d tackle three things. first of all, a funding system, which means that schools in challenging areas with deprived pupils are getting less of a real terms increase over the next few years than schools in the leafy suburbs because money is being directed towards them. so i would fund that school budget. secondly, i would completely, from the top to the bottom reform the inspection system 0fsted. i think it s a dysfunctional regulator. it knows the price of everything and the value of nothing in education. it s inspection.
is a finding that ofcom might have highlighted more today. in that context, if a person doesn t see their opinion . reflected, they view that l as an issue of impartiality. sitting on the fence, - in a funny way, is taking a position. that is what many people believe. i and you see this in commercial radio, which is far more - opinionated when they are dealing with newsl and current affairs. i know, because i am supposed to be the person that they get. to beat up on those media, and i just think that s just l where we are as a society and notjust of the uk- but more generally. in which case let s ask kevin about that, given that lots of broadcasters, lbc, gb news and others have preseters that express opinions but across that output you deemed them to be balanced, why can t the bbc go that way too? i think the bbc has a unique position in british life, a unique funding system and a unique accountability, and actually it uniquely has its own set of editorial guidelines as well, which go