Background Education reforms before 1941 England and Wales had a network of voluntary schools, most of them
National Schools run by the
Church of England, predating the state elementary schools set up under the
Elementary Education Act 1870. The question of integrating church schools into the state system had bedeviled
Balfour's
Education Act 1902.
H. A. L. Fisher had brought in another major
Education Act 1918 but had not succeeded in integrating the church schools. The Education Act 1918 promised compulsory part-time education from 14 to 18, but this was never implemented because of the
Geddes Axe (spending cuts) of 1921. The
Hadow Report of 1926, which recommended that the 11–14 age group should be hived off into separate senior elementary schools, was implemented very slowly because of the economic situation in the 1930s and had not been fully implemented at the start of World War Two. The Labour Party had promised
Secondary Education For All in
R. H. Tawney's 1922 work but did not have a majority in Parliament during their 1929-31 government to take on the vested interests of the churches. The Education Act 1936 was stymied by the churches, who blocked any further state control of the church schools, and by the Conservative Party agricultural lobby which ensured that the raising of the school leaving age to 15 was full of exceptions to allow teenagers to work on the land. The higher school leaving age was due to take effect by 1939 but the event was not implemented. The
Spens Report, which was published in 1938 after five years of deliberation, and which called for the expansion of secondary education, was also not fully implemented. More than half the schools in the country were church schools, many of them small schools, and many of them in rural areas. However, Church of England schools now educated 20% of children, down from 40% in 1902. Many church schools were in a poor state of repair. An average of 70 Church schools were closing each year. Many non-Anglicans resented the "Single School Districts", mainly in rural areas, where the Church of England school was the
only school, and to which parents had no option but to send their children. In the past the close relationship between the vicar and the local squire, whose family might well have paid for the school to be built, had often angered those lower down the social order who were less likely to be Anglicans. Butler later quoted with approval
Élie Halévy's comments that English education consisted of "State Schools favoured by the Free Churches and free schools favoured by the State Church" and that rural schools were "built with the squire's money and taught the parson's catechism". Nonconformists tended to want church schools, especially in Single School Areas, to be nationalized and
Cowper-Temple teaching (non-denominational religious teaching, required in state schools under the
1870 Forster Act) applied everywhere. However, they were committed to educational reform.
Archbishop Temple derided the Agreed Syllabus as "Stoical Ethicism". By the 1940s, the
NUT wanted to keep the Cowper-Temple Clause in state schools, and a guarantee that teachers not be appointed on the basis of their religious belief, to prevent only teachers of a given religious denomination being hired in church schools. Like the Nonconformists, the
TUC and NUT simply wanted Church of England schools brought under state control. The Catholic leader Cardinal
Arthur Hinsley rejected the Agreed Syllabus altogether, thinking it "disembodied Christianity".
William Temple, then
Archbishop of York, was committed to building a "
New Jerusalem", a new social order based on Christianity, and saw education reform as part of this.
The Times had called for an increase in religious education (17 February 1940). In June 1940
Cardinal Arthur Hinsley, leader of the English Catholic Church, had led a deputation to
Herwald Ramsbotham,
President of the Board of Education, to demand financial support for Catholic schools. Ramsbotham had acknowledged that in principle the Catholic schools needed help but had made no firm commitment, and had stressed that greater state control over their schools, which the Catholic hierarchy did not want, would be the
quid pro quo. On 13 February 1941 the Anglican Archbishops of Canterbury, York, and Wales issued the "Five Points", a statement on Christian education, from
Lambeth Palace, after consultation with English and Welsh bishops and with the agreement of the (nonconformist) Free Churches. Ramsbotham's department produced a set of proposals for reform, called "The Green Book" after its cover, in June 1941. The Green Book was supposedly confidential but was widely distributed among opinion formers, as Lester Smith put it, "in a blaze of secrecy", and was later used as the basis for talks with
Local Education Authorities (LEAs) and teaching unions. Paragraph 137 of the Green Book proposed compensating for greater state control of church schools by partially lifting the 1870 Forster Act's ban on denominational instruction in state schools, to allow such teaching from the age of 11. Paradoxically this was not good enough for the churches, as the proposal for separate schools from the age of 11 would
reduce their control over children aged 11–14, who up until that time had been educated in church schools. Catholics rejected the Green Book out of hand. The Green Book was soon overshadowed by the Five Points, the Protestant Churches' proposals on Religious Education in state schools which had been issued in February. His appointment was announced on 20 July 1941. Butler later implied that the appointment was intended as an insult (e.g. that Churchill had talked of "wiping babies' bottoms"). Some writers, such as
Paul Addison, echo these claims and suggest that Churchill offered him an education, a backwater in wartime, or a diplomatic post to remove him from the more sensitive Foreign Office. However, Butler had been keen to leave the Foreign Office, and press stories that he had previously declined Cabinet positions were misinformed. Churchill told Butler on his appointment that his main job would be to supervise the movement of evacuated schoolchildren. Anthony Howard argues that the promotion was
not intended as an insult. At the time, Butler recorded that Churchill had demanded more patriotic history teaching: "Tell the children that
Wolfe won Quebec". Butler later wrote that he had an experience of negotiating with religious interests both in India and in
Palestine, where he had helped Malcolm MacDonald draft his
White Paper of 1939. Butler, who was privately educated and from a well-to-do family, initially had little knowledge of state elementary schools and relied on the guidance of his junior minister,
James Chuter Ede. Chuter Ede was also a useful link to the Labour leaders Attlee,
Arthur Greenwood and
Ernest Bevin. Butler was known to be a practising Anglican, and Ede's background complemented his: he was a leading nonconformist and lay preacher, and had been an elementary school teacher and NUT activist (Ede was also governor of a Jesuit School, although that was less helpful). Both men also gained a reputation for integrity. and not to speculate about what resources would be available after the war for the school building, preferring instead to concentrate on technical education for munitions and radio workers. Butler later wrote that having seen the
Promised Land, "I was damned if I was going to die in the Land of
Moab. Basing myself on long experience of Churchill over the India Bill, I decided to disregard what he said and go straight ahead." In October 1941, working with
Food Minister Lord Woolton, Butler and Ede arranged for 3.5 million children to receive school milk and doubled the number receiving school lunch to 700,000. They also arranged for a committee under
Cyril Norwood to report on secondary school exams (Norwood reported in June 1943). In a written answer to the House of Commons (23 October 1941), Butler laid out the issues which were due for reform: raising the school leaving age, redefining elementary education, streaming by ability at age 11, part-time continuation schools for vocational and physical education up to age 18 and equality of opportunity for university entrance.
1942 Chuter Ede and the White Memorandum On 4 February 1942 Butler's junior minister
James Chuter Ede, who had already grown to respect him, declined a proposal that he move to the Ministry of War Transport, although he would have obeyed a "direct order" from Churchill. Churchill deferred to Attlee's wish to keep Ede in place. There was a five-day debate in Parliament on education in February 1942.
Cosmo Lang, the outgoing
Archbishop of Canterbury, spoke in the House of Lords, demanding the Five Points to increase religious teaching in state schools. Chuter Ede dissuaded him from bringing in a draft bill to satisfy the Church's demands, as it would prevent a general settlement with other denominations. Butler and Ede also felt that allowing such a single-clause bill to implement the Five Points might lose Church of England support for broader reform. The Church of England had been relatively sympathetic to the "Green Book" (which had proposed permitting denominational teaching in state schools to children over the age of 11), but Anglicans were not pleased with the "White Memorandum" proposal for compulsory transfer of (church) schools in "single school areas" to LEA control, a move favoured by nonconformists.
Temple succeeded the elderly Cosmo Lang as Archbishop of Canterbury on 1 April 1942.
Agreement with the Church of England Butler had a meeting on 5 June 1942 with the National Society (the body of Church of England schools). Temple was won over in early June by Butler's stress on the poor state of Church school infrastructure. Temple agreed that the majority of Anglican schools should accept this option, Some Anglican hardliners, e.g. Bishop
AC Headlam, would have preferred the Scottish solution of generous state aid with little state control; this was also the preferred option of the Catholic Church.
Public schools and teacher training In June 1942 Butler set up a committee into teacher training and recruitment, under the Vice-Chancellor of Liverpool University. Butler also brought in curriculum reform: current affairs of the USSR and USA, Physical Training, drama, music, and domestic science were to be studied. Serious thought was given to integrating them into the state system. Butler was supportive, believing that standards would be raised in state schools if affluent and articulate parents were involved in the system. The Fleming Commission –
Fleming was a Scot so was assumed not to be
parti pris about English private schools – was assembled by Butler to consider the matter, but despite being announced in June 1942 it would not report until July 1944. With Churchill's leadership being questioned after recent war reverses,
Ivor Bulmer-Thomas (14 August 1942) commented that some Conservative MPs saw Butler rather than Anthony Eden as a potential successor.
Negotiations with the Roman Catholics Butler had less success in his dealings with the Roman Catholic Church. Roman Catholics were very reluctant to compromise, arguing that they already paid rates and taxes for the upkeep of state schools to which they could not send their own children. For the Catholic Church, school was an essential part of religious observance. Butler realized that this would be too expensive to sell to his Conservative colleagues, and that such subsidy to the Catholic schools would infuriate the Free Churches, LEAs and the NUT, and that Churchill would explode if there was any hint of a row about "Rome on the Rates", a slogan which had been used to campaign against the 1902 Education Act. Butler and Chuter Ede urged Hinsley to take a more positive approach. Kingsley Wood was keen to keep costs down (it was thought initially that only 500 of the 10,000 Church of England schools would choose the semi-autonomous Voluntary Aided status) and Butler claimed that on 14 September 1942 Wood told him that "he would rather give the money for education than throw it down the sink with Sir
William Beveridge". He received "a very formidable" Free Church deputation. Their main concern was that LEAs might dictate the choice of the headteacher. After two meetings chaired by the Anglican Archbishop Temple, the Free Churches agreed not to impede the bill. The NUT was concerned that, in Voluntary Aided Schools, teachers not of that school's denomination might suffer professional disadvantage; Butler promised them that this would be forbidden by a clause in the bill. He thought them "a stupid lot". Hinsley also argued that Catholic schools should not be bullied by the state, as they often provided for the poorest inner-city communities. Churchill, still concerned at a repetition of the controversy which had surrounded the 1902 Education Act, telephoned Butler to tell him that "You are landing me in the biggest political row of the generation". Butler later embellished the story to claim that Churchill had sent him a mounted copy of the letter, with "There you are, fixed, old cock" scrawled across it. This ruined Butler's plans to bring in an education bill in 1943. Butler toyed with the idea of allowing himself to be considered for the post. A handwritten letter declining appointment as Viceroy is to be found among Butler's papers, although it is unclear that any formal offer was ever made, or that any version of the letter was ever sent – his biographer
Anthony Howard thought not. In the event Linlithgow stayed in post for another year until 1 October 1943 Chuter Ede warned (27 November) that "
something on account" was needed after memories of 1918, when promised postwar social reforms had not been forthcoming. Bevin had the Lord President's Committee give Butler permission to draft a bill. The Beveridge Report was debated by the Cabinet in November 1942 and published at the start of December, increasing the political will for an education bill as a cheaper alternative. Even Ernest Bevin wanted to know the what would be the ultimate cost of implementing the Report, whilst Churchill's confidant
Lord Cherwell was concerned that the Americans, who were providing generous financial aid to the UK, would not want to be subsidizing socialism.
1943 No agreement with the Catholics Butler met Cardinal Hinsley again on 15 January 1943 and complained of the lack of progress in negotiations with the Catholic Church, which wanted to combine 100% state funding of infrastructure with religious autonomy. Butler prepared to consider an increase in aid grants from the 50% currently on offer to 75% to the new senior schools that were reorganized as planned under the 1936 Act. Archbishop
Downey led a formal Roman Catholic deputation to see Butler on 3 February, but there was still no agreement. Butler visited Scotland, whose system of state funding of schools combined with religious autonomy was favoured by the Catholics. However, he found that over 50% of Scottish schoolteachers were subject to denominational tests, which in England and Wales would not be acceptable to the NUT, which had opposed such tests since that union had been founded in 1870. The Catholic hierarchy continued to be opposed to Butler's bill throughout its passage. In March 1943, with Allied victory (sooner or later) looking increasingly likely, Churchill was now open to the idea of an education bill in 1944, as a social reform which would be cheaper than implementing the
Beveridge Report. On 4 March 1943 the bookmakers were quoting odds for the next Prime Minister as 2:1 for
John Anderson, 5:1 for
Oliver Stanley, and 10:1 for Butler. In April and May 1943 Butler arranged for Chuter Ede, who had not been able to complete his degree, to receive an honorary
MA from
Christ's College, Cambridge. The White Paper, outlining the government's proposals for a bill, appeared on 16 July 1943. Church-State relations received very little attention, John Anderson and Kingsley Wood were happy that the White Paper helped to distract attention from the Beveridge Report. Butler resigned from the Conservative Party Post War Problems Central Committee in July 1943 (he was replaced by
David Maxwell-Fyfe) to concentrate on the upcoming education bill. He presented his plans for a bill to the House of Commons on 29 July, likening the existing education system to a schoolboy's jacket, now worn out, too small, shiny, patched and in need of replacement. Chuter Ede, in winding up the debate, noted that the only real criticism was for lack of progress in integrating the church schools and waiting for the Fleming Report on fee-paying schools.
Education bill Archbishop Temple demanded in the House of Lords (4 August 1943) that even in controlled schools (i.e. schools which had been absorbed into the state system) the denominational teaching be given by a teacher approved by the school managers, that repair grants (presumably for the semi-autonomous aided schools) be increased from 50% to 75% and that the door be kept open for future denominational schools if 80–90% of the population in an area wanted them. Butler was initially concerned that Temple might ally with Hinsley and the Roman Catholics, whose demands were similar, but came to realize that Temple was in fact making demands to appease his own Anglican hardliners, so as to protect his position as their leader. Archbishop Temple obtained the concession that denominational teachers could be allowed in fully controlled schools if parents so wished. In November 1943, Butler joined the Government Reconstruction Committee. As late as 10 February 1944 Sir
Alan Lascelles commented that "the Viceroyalty [of India] is clearly [Butler]'s ultimate goal". The second amendment was passed by 117–116 on 29 March 1944. Butler, who thought it wrong to dictate to the teaching profession, stormed out of the Chamber and was rumoured to be about to resign. Educational doctrine of the time favoured the
Tripartite System, with children graded in the
eleven plus exam, although this was not specifically mentioned in the Act. The Act did not specifically require three different types of
school to be built, and the 1943 White Paper stated that the three types of secondary schooling could perfectly well be carried out on the same site or even in the same building, which in Butler's view "forecast the comprehensive idea". However, he deplored the way in which grammar schools became in subsequent decades "a political football through the obsessive insistence of the Labour Party on a doctrinal rather than an empirical approach".
1945 With party politics restarting, Butler opposed the proposed nationalization of iron and steel on 9 April 1945. Like Churchill, Butler wanted the Coalition to continue until Japan had been defeated (an event then assumed to be a year or more away) and more social reforms had been passed. Butler advised Churchill, who was chairing a meeting in the Cabinet Room at Number 10, against an early election. Beaverbrook, addressing him as a "young man", warned him that he would not be offered a job in the new government if he spoke to the Prime Minister like that. After the end of the European War in May 1945, the wartime coalition government came to an end. The magazines
The Schoolmaster and
Education praised Butler and mourned his departure from the Board of Education. Bevin was then so disgusted by Churchill's "Gestapo" speech that he refused to show Butler around the Ministry of Labour, simply calling for his hat and walking out. Butler later wrote that the work of the Conservative Party Post War Problems Central Committee was swept away by the partisan atmosphere of the election.
Herbert Morrison had already won the propaganda war at home and
ABCA got the forces to vote out for Labour, or so Butler later argued. He would probably not have held the seat if the Liberal candidate had not polled over 3,000 votes and split the opposition vote. ==Post-war==