We demand a living, non-means-tested grant for every student! Tax the rich!

We are calling on student and youth activists and campaigners to sign the following statement.

We the undersigned believe that the decision of NUS National Conference 2006 to abandon the national union’s policy for a non-means-tested grant was a step backwards. We oppose this shift back towards the situation which existed immediately after the election of the Blair government, when the Labour Students-dominated leadership of NUS positively supported the abolition of grants, arguing that they were "unaffordable".

We believe that only a universal, non-means-tested grant can end student poverty and debt by ensuring that all students receive the resources they need. Means-testing will always have a serious impact on most of those whose families are not super-rich, and students from a working-class background above all. Some may scrape by but all will be penalised. It also disadvantages black and women students, who will take longer on average to pay off their debts; LGBT students, who are more likely to need independence from their parents; and disabled students, who are likely to suffer disproportionately from a lack of decent support.

When Labour Students and others argue in dishonest and pseudo-radical terms that they support means-testing because they do not want Prince William, Peaches Geldof etc to get a grant, they in fact let the rich off the hook by refusing to demand heavy progressive taxation to pay for education and other public services. If free education were funded by taxing the rich, wealthy families would in fact pay not only for their own children’s education but for everyone else’s too. This is surely the minimum that anyone who wants a democratic and egalitarian society should demand.

The NHS is an example of a service freely available to everyone; the solution to its current crisis is not to introduce means-testing, but to stop the private finance schemes which are leeching its resources and tax the rich to ensure that it has the funds it needs to provide top quality healthcare for all.

We therefore resolve to demand a living grant of at least £150 a week for all students in higher and further education, funded by taxation of the rich and business. We will campaign not only for NUS to restore its support for this policy at National Conference 2007, but for the launch of an active, fighting national campaign to win our demands.

Please sign this statement by emailing us at  info@free-education.org.uk

Sofie Buckland - NUS National Executive
Alex Kemp - NUS Disabled Students’ Officer
Dan Glass - President, University of Sussex Students’ Union
Debbie Hollingsworth - Women’s Officer, Ruskin College and Education Not for Sale Women
Daniel Randall - University of Sheffield, NUS National Executive 2005-2006
Socialist Youth Network Executive Committee