We are becoming increasingly concerned that the Secretary of State for Education will be making a u-turn on the Government’s Manifesto commitment to remove the 50% cap.
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At the Bishops’ Plenary it was agreed that a national campaign in England was needed to mobilise Catholics to write to the Secretary of State for Education. To support this the CES has produced an on-line tool which we are encouraging all Catholics to complete. By providing your name and address the tool automatically generates an email to the Secretary of State and sends a copy to your local MP. This tool can be found on the homepage of our website www.catholiceducation.org.uk or on the Bishops’ Conference website www.catholic-ew.org.uk
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Last year the Government promised to lift the 50% cap on faith admissions for new religious schools. This policy had proved to be an effective ban on any new Catholic schools as our Bishops ruled that opening a Catholic school that tuned away Catholics for being Catholic was against Canon Law.
The 50% cap was a policy that specifically targeted Catholics as Catholic schools are popular with parents of all faiths and none. Last September the Government acknowledged the cap was unfair to the Catholic community and pledged to scrap it. The Conservatives even included a commitment to remove it in their manifesto.
Unfortunately, the feedback we are getting is that the Secretary of State for Education is thinking about U-turning on this and breaking the Government’s promise to Catholics.
The Catholic community now needs to make its collective voice heard and tell the Secretary of State that this level of discrimination against Catholic schools, parents and children will not be tolerated.
As such we are urging Catholics to write to the Secretary of State and their MP expressing their concern that this promise to our community could be broken. These letters can be easily sent by following this link, (www.catholiceducation.org.uk) inserting your postcode and clicking ‘send’.
Also, it would be hugely appreciated if you could share this link with as many people as possible.
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