Schools, the RAAC crisis and some concrete Biblical teaching

Just over a week ago, news emerged that around 150 schools were at immediate risk of ceilings and walls collapsing, having been constructed with Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC).

The media headlines have fueled anxieties from both parents and students, confusion for teachers and educational professionals, and wrangling and ill feeling across both Westminster and Whitehall. But as I’ve reflected, I’ve felt that there is concrete biblical teaching we should apply here.

RAAC was widely used in public and private buildings from the 1950s through to the 1980s. Although it was known to have a lifespan of at least 30 years, it can last for much longer if it is well-made and well-maintained.

When it is not, however, it can lead to parts of buildings collapsing without warning, and, after two such recent incidents, the risk this material posed was reassessed over the summer. Around 150 schools in England were told to close parts of their building with immediate effect.

How and when long-term solutions can be agreed upon and implemented is still unclear, as is the full extent of the problem.

I am grieved to see yet again an inverse relationship between the escalation of a big public problem and the decline in truth and grace across all sides of the political debate, but perhaps the clearest biblical principle at stake here is one of stewardship.

One of George Osborne’s favourite phrases during his tenure as Chancellor was that a government’s responsibility is to “fix the roof while the sun is shining”. He used it as a critique, a justification and indeed, a boast, yet it seems a particularly apt metaphor in light of this story.

Opposition parties have been quick to highlight the fact that the previous Government’s Building Schools for the Future Programme was cancelled in 2010. This directly impacted capital spending and building work on a number of schools that have now been classed as ‘at risk’. Although a Conservative Government took this decision, our current Prime Minster was only elected to Parliament in 2015, five years later.

However, the current Prime Minister is linked to capital spending on schools after he became Chancellor. Funding fell from £765 million in 2019/20 to £416 million two years later, according to the National Audit Office, and, as one Department for Education former senior official revealed on Radio 4’s Today programme this week, there was a conscious decision by the Treasury to fund just over half of what civil servants estimated was the realistic amount needed to maintain and repair schools.

This kind of decision is not new or unique to this Government. Most Governments look to building projects and preventative services as areas that can be easily cut back if public spending needs to be controlled or curbed. It is natural that if savings need to be made they will come from areas of expenditure where there will be minimal immediate impact.

Nevertheless, rarely are any significant cuts made without consequences; and I wonder if different decisions would be made if the principle of good stewardship was applied?

Biblical stewardship is multi-faceted, but here are a couple of key principles.

First, we are called to be good stewards. Our individual and common responsibility as stewards is a consistent theme throughout the bible. Indeed, in humanity’s job description as image-bearers in Genesis 1:28, God calls on us to cultivate and care for his creation using the unique gifts and talents we all have. That is what it means to be human and a good steward. This is reiterated after the Fall to Noah in Genesis 9 and again to the exiled Israelites in Jeremiah 29.

Often, we reduce stewardship down to savings, economising or being efficient. But although pruning may lead to fruit bearing and flourishing, we first need to plant and cultivate. We are to go beyond the minimum, and we are to avoid short-term exploitation or neglect because to do so has consequences which are inconsistent with God’s better story for us and His creation.

Secondly, good stewardship involves accountability. Jesus talks about stewardship a lot. In Jesus’ parables, like the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30), we are told that we will all give account to the rightful owner as to how well we have managed the things entrusted to us. The author and leader Hugh Whelchel says, “like the servants in the parable of the talents, we will be called to give an account of how we have administered everything we have bene given.”

That applies to what we have direct dominion over. But it is also a challenge for each of us to consider what is our responsibility, in a democracy and in our communities, over public decisions that we can indirectly impact. We do not hold the same responsibility as direct decision makers but that does not mean we abdicate responsibility over areas where we can have a say or influence decisions.

Therefore we are all called to be good stewards, responsible and accountable, but there is a particular responsibility and accountability that we have as Christians.

We know that we have a stewardship responsibility; we know there is accountability for how well we steward; and, as Whelchel notes in light of passages like Colossians 3:23-24 and Matthew 25:21, “the faithful steward who does the master’s will with the master’s resources can expect to be rewarded incompletely in this life but fully in the next.”

We may think that politicians are only interested in maximizing their rewards now – or at least up to the next election - but even if that is true (and it is not for many) the follower of Jesus holds to a different reward-criteria.

Stewardship applies not just to oceans and rainforests, bank accounts and our own homes, but school buildings, courthouses, and other public institutions. Public spending, the management of public buildings and institutions, and how we use our own and our corporate and pooled resources as a nation is a stewardship matter, and it matters to God.

Indeed, you could say that how we steward what the Lord has given us dominion over – directly and indirectly - is a concrete manifestation of our faith; I hope that we all take it as an opportunity to learn.