Battle for Shropshire schools goes on

FOLLOWING A recent demonstration of over 1,000 people against school closures in Shrewsbury, local Tory MPs announced that the threat to close 22 rural primary schools had been withdrawn.

Jim Reekie and Jake Moore, Shropshire Socialist Party

However plans for the merger of 16 schools would remain on the agenda. So, Shropshire Socialist Party was again out petitioning against school mergers, closures, cuts and privatisation.

Tories have been claiming victory (over their own Tory-led council!) and suggesting that they have 'saved local schools.' But many parents, teachers and trade unionists see it only as a temporary reprieve and think the proposed mergers will themselves lead to closures and job losses.

The Tories know that people suspect further attacks on education and wrote a joint letter to the local press warning against "siren voices that could endanger the future of local schools".

These 'siren voices' are those of concerned parents and community campaigners who are rightly suspicious of New Labour and Tory wishes to further the idea of the market in state education.

Individual local schools have formed their own campaigns. Socialists and trade unionists need to draw these together into one united campaign and defeat these plans.