Responding to the AOC’s findings on the difference in funding between 16-18 year olds in state and private education James Turner, Sutton Trust Director of Programmes said:
“We are very concerned about the impact on social mobility of the increasing disparity in spending on privately educated and state funded sixth formers.
“This report shows that, on average, private sixth forms spend nearly three times as much as state providers on each student. Furthermore, private schools are increasing spending on sixth formers whilst state funding is frozen, which means this gap is set to widen even further.
“We know good teaching in the right subjects is vital to tackling the seven fold university access gap between students from the richest and poorest backgrounds. However, this report shows that whilst the private sector recognises the need to invest in sixth form education, spending an average 7% more on sixth formers than 11-15 year olds, the state sector is funding six formers 22% less than 11-15 year olds on average.
“While money is not everything, the widening gap between state and private funding of sixth form and college students should be addressed if we are serious about our commitment to fair access for all to the top universities.”
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