Dear NUT member,As the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidate for the ColneValley constituency in the general election, I have not been invited to thishustings meeting. The NUT has not given a clear reason why this is the case,but apart from being undemocratic, it means you do not have the opportunityto hear the TUSC position regarding education and other vital issues. Overthe past 4 years as a Kirklees councillor I have worked closely with local NUTmembers in the Kirklees against academies campaign, the Save Our Servicescampaign and against the Building Schools for the Future proposals in NorthKirklees, now set to come to the South.Hopefully this information will go some way to redress the imbalance butplease feel free to contact me for further information on 07814223177 / jackie.grunsell@hotmail.co.uk, or go to my blog:www.jackiegrunsell.wordpress.comor the TUSC website:www.tusc.org.uk The three main parties, Labour, Lib Dem and Tory, all dance to the music ofbig business. All promise major cuts in public services and jobs in the nextfew months and years. Cuts will hit schools, teaching and non-teaching staff,children and the quality of education in our schools.Over the recent months the debacle of ‘Building Schools For the Future’ hasunravelled on Kirklees council, with all the parties proposing plans for schoolclosures and restructures on the basis of their own narrow party interestsrather than the education needs of pupils in the borough. Despite promisesfrom Labour of ‘no academies’ they have given E-Act the contract to run thenew Howden Clough school. E-Act is a London based company which has just sacked 7 teachers at the Crest Boys Academy School in Brent, havingonly taken over the school last year. This has lead to a strike by NUTmembers in the school, a strike which I support. E-Act issued a statementsaying ‘the school must return to an operating balance’. In other words, thecompany has put profits before childrens’ education. All this while its DirectorGeneral, Sir Bruce Liddington is being paid £265,000 a year, the highest paideducation executive in the UK. E-Act receives £50 million from thegovernment to run the school, described by the local NUT rep as being “on agravy train at the taxpayers expense”.This example highlights general concerns over academies in general. Tenyears ago the council made a huge mistake in selecting Jarvis to maintain 20of Kirklees’ schools. We cannot afford to make this kind of mistake again inallowing private, profit driven, companies to dictate our childrens’ education.The council looks set to make the new school in Fartown an academy also. Iam opposed to any further plans for academies and would campaignalongside local trade unionists to demand the reversal of E-Act’s selection inNorth Kirklees. Schools should be democratically run by elected local councilsand keep to national pay and conditions agreements.