‘Render Therefore Unto Caesar the Things Which Are Caesar’s, and Unto God the Things That Are God’s’ (Matthew 22:21). Reflections on the Changing Relationship Between Catholic Education and the State Eighty Years After the Passing of the 1944 Butler Education Act

The aim of this paper is to reflect on the changing relationship between Catholic education and the State in the eighty years that have elapsed since the passing of the 1944 ‘Butler’ Education Act. The 1944 Education Act proved to be a transformational landmark in the development of Catholic education in this country. Whilst in many other countries in the world Catholic education is provided by independent fee-paying schools, in England it has benefited from support and funding provided by the government. The legislation consolidated the relationship between Church and State that had been established with the introduction of compulsory education in 1870. However, integrated within the national educational system, Catholic schools are also subject to political currents that can pose challenges. When I began teaching in a Catholic secondary school in the mid-1970s, compulsory education was framed within the legislation set out in the 1944 Education Act. However, the post-war consensus that informed that legislation was swept away in the wake of the passing of the 1988 Education Reform Act (ERA). This latter development marked a watershed in schooling in England and Wales. Whilst extending greater autonomy to schools through Local Management of Schools (LMS) and Grant Maintained (GM) status, central government designed and regulated education for all maintained schools through a National Curriculum and it intervened more rigorously in their management by scrutinising their performance through the establishment of regular Ofsted inspections. Arguably, the introduction of Grant Maintained schools contributed to ‘a survival of the fittest approach’, which challenged concerns for the common good. Moreover, with the passing of the 2010 Academies Act, it became possible for all maintained schools in England and Wales to convert to academies and multi-academy trusts (MATs) by direct agreement with the Secretary of State for Education. Within the Catholic sector, where the bishop has traditionally been primarily responsible for the regulation of education provided by Catholic schools across his diocese, the question of academisation has provoked divisions of opinion about the governance of Catholic schools. Drawing on a reflection on my own experience as a teacher and leader in Catholic secondary education, the paper examines opportunities and challenges that have faced Catholic education in this country over the past eighty years and considers implications for its future. Autobiographical narrative is a method of research located within the qualitative field of enquiry. Whilst its subjective and introspective nature has been open to question, it provides a researcher with the opportunity to examine personal experience to provide illuminative insight.