The government has wasted the billions of pounds it has spent on education over the last few years, according to new figures unveiled by the Office for National Statistics.
Or at least that's what the papers say today. The Financial Times said large increases in funding had not been put to good use. While the Telegraph said value for money was worse in spite of the billions spent on education. And the Times said the change in schools funding has done little to improve performance.
They pointed out that the ONS had found that, in spite of spending on education almost doubling over the last decade, "productivity" actually fell by 1.5%.
It defined "educational productivity" by dividing school "outputs" (such as the number of pupils and exam results) by "inputs" (such as the amount of money spent each year). About £49.4bn was spent on education in 2006, compared with £27bn in 1996.
It blamed the fall in productivity on declining school standards and an increase in schools support staff at the same time as numbers of primary school children fell.
The Liberal Democrats' shadow secretary for children, schools and families, David Laws, leapt to decry the "very worrying indeed" figures that undermined the government's investment in education.
While he admitted that the figures were an "extremely crude measure", he said they emphasised that good education requires more than simply extra cash.
It was a sentiment echoed by teaching unions. Martin Johnson, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers' acting deputy general secretary, argued that the report was "simplistic economics".
"It is simply not realistic to expect a precise correlation between spending and pupil achievement as measured by tests. It does not recognise the relative difficulty of raising the achievement of the pupils who are doing least well - many of whom have multiple and complex problems," he said.
And anyway, much of the increased spending was on staff, vital to avoid a teacher shortage and, therefore, fall-off in pupil achievement.
So has the government failed to give taxpayers value for money? No. Or at least that's what the ministers are desperately saying as they jump to defend their record.
A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families, rebutted the story saying the ONS had not said taxpayers are getting a raw deal.
Who to believe? It's a quandary.
