So how is it a bad thing schools are going to accept more poor pupils? Or are schools, like universities, only meant for the middle class kids of middle class Guardian readers?

Also, “The government, which is cutting public spending by billions of pounds to slash the national debt” – ECONOMICS FAIL. Deficit, not debt. Obviously this website and the scaremongering local media have no idea of the difference between the two.

@1 The 2 Eds

“So how is it a bad thing schools are going to accept more poor pupils? Or are schools, like universities, only meant for the middle class kids of middle class Guardian readers?”

If you read the article again, you’ll see it’s got nothing to do with pupils being accepted or otherwise. It’s about encouraging parents to apply for free school meals. I assume that the point of the article is to show that schools are resorting to slightly dodgy tactics to survive the cuts.

Personally, I don’t see it as that shocking. Create a system, any system, and some people and organisations will do whatever they can to get the most out of it.

There are almost certainly children entitled to free school meals who aren’t claiming so they should be encouraged to do so.

Would you prefer tighter controls to prevent this practice?

Worth pointing out that in many cases (not all by any means) free school meals are likely to be more nutrious than what parents provide for children. And those parents who care for their children enough to try and ensure that they have a healthy meal available to them are unlikely to just want to sign them up for free school meals anyway…

Not sure this is a problem, since at most it is going to ensure families claim a benefit to which they are entitled – and the headline implied that I would find a story of pupil pinching and selection based on income (which would be an interesting quandry for progressives…), so I’m kind of disappointed.

Interesting article…..Having clicked on the link to the Worthing Herald, public comments are most enlightening ! This is about a Tory authority hunting around for dosh off the poor because they don’t want to make any cuts to their education empire. As one commenter correctly also says, it’s highly embarrasing to paremts having to declare what they earn so as to qualify. I also sense there’s a high food wastage in this scam ?

@ 5 Ted

Much as I’d like to join you in bashing the Tories…

“As one commenter correctly also says, it’s highly embarrasing to paremts having to declare what they earn so as to qualify.”

Their situation is exactly the same – i.e. they don’t have to claim if they don’t want to – with the possible added bonus that some people have now found out that they are entitled.

“I also sense there’s a high food wastage in this scam ?”

Food wastage? Probably. But I think that you’re pushing the definition of “scam” if you’re making it include “encouraging people to claim the free food that they’re entitled to”.

6. Chaise Guevara …good points. I’m left wondering if any of their schools will opt out of local authority control and control their own budgets ? That said, there’s still something ironic (historic) about tories raiding the poor albeit in a far more sophisticated way nowadays ? (sorry…promise to be serious ! )