OUR members hardly need to be reminded why they are marching together with the People’s Assembly today. Yet if there was ever any doubt, the newly elected government has furnished us with a long list of reasons to take to the streets.

The Education and Adoption Bill was published on June 3 and will receive its second reading on Monday.

The legislation gives further powers to Education Secretary Nicky Morgan to dismantle the state education system, paving the way for further privatisation.

The coalition government routinely coerced schools into academisation. This Bill promises more of the same, but with an additional intention to silence critics, including parents and teachers as well as elected local councillors and the communities which schools serve.

Under the guise of doing away with “bureaucratic and legal loopholes,” Morgan intends to stifle any dissent by removing the already minimal requirements for consultation before a school is converted to academy status. This is an attack on democracy and must be opposed.

She has pledged to convert an additional 1,000 “coasting” or “failing” schools, but leaves us with no clue as to what she means by “coasting.”

Teachers who are overworked and underpaid are already familiar with the constant threat of intervention from central government or the schools inspectorate. This is set to become even worse if this Bill passes.

The Education Secretary also committed to opening a further 500 free schools over the next Parliament. She has, absurdly, described free schools as “drivers of social justice.”

The free schools already in existence have wasted vast amounts of public money and were often set up in areas of little or no need. Given the acute shortage of school places in some areas, this is sheer indulgence and expresses an ideological preference for marketised systems over fair funding and equality.

The government has revealed that it plans deep cuts in public spending but is reluctant to offer much detail. Somehow, I think we know that George Osborne’s Budget on July 8 will spell bad news for social justice, and his comprehensive spending review in the autumn will reveal more detail about the £12 billion welfare cuts promised before the recent general election.

Overall, public spending on education in 2013-14 was £90.2bn and the equivalent figure for 2009-10, adjusted for inflation, was £95.5bn. This amounts to a cut of £5bn in real terms and a reversal of increases under Labour.

Although school budgets were largely protected in real terms thanks to the pupil premium, the list of cuts affecting schools is still a long and shameful one: school repair funds slashed, careers and local authority services heavily reduced, a sharp rise in tuition fees and the loss of the Education Maintenance Allowance.

In parallel to this, the academies and free schools programme has been an indulged pet project where money is seemingly no object. In 2010-12 the government overspent by £1bn on academies programme — and that is beyond the already extravagant budget reserved for needless and unwanted conversions.

David Cameron has promised that school funding per pupil will stay the same in cash terms, but thanks to inflation this could amount to a real terms cut of 10 per cent or more. That is before we even take into account the extra 5 per cent costs that schools are facing due to higher employers’ national insurance and pension contributions.

The Conservatives have not matched this promise to schools with any sort of promise to protect post-16 or other education funding. Funding for 16-19 education overall has already been devastated.

Spending on education is an essential investment in the future. Our first focus must be on the value of education, rather than its cost.

I know that we are all concerned by the plight of children in poverty. There are a shocking three-and-a-half million children living in poverty in Britain and Northern Ireland today — around one in four.

Many children arrive at school hungry and I have lost count of the number of NUT members who have told of bringing food for their neediest pupils. Teachers cannot solve every social issue and it is the government which needs to reduce poverty. Instead, we have a Conservative government in denial that foodbank use and poverty are on the rise.

Poverty has a significant impact on the educational experience and attainment of many children growing up in Britain and this is why we so strongly support free-school meals.

Christine Blower is general secretary of the National Union of Teachers