Editing Joseph Chamberlain (section)

====Education Act 1902====
{{Main|Education Act 1902}}
One of Balfour's first acts as prime minister was the introduction of an Education Act, intended to promote [[National Efficiency]]. Though Chamberlain supported the cause, the Balfour Act abolished the 2,568 school boards established under the [[Elementary Education Act 1870]] ([[33 & 34 Vict.]] c. 75) which remained popular with Nonconformists and Radicals and replaced them with [[local education authorities]] to administer a state centred system of primary, secondary and technical schools. The Bill would also give ratepayers' money to voluntary Church of England schools;{{citation needed|date=November 2022}} opposition to that provision in the 1870 Act had spurred on Chamberlain's first involvement in politics.

Chamberlain was aware that the Bill would estrange Nonconformists, Radicals and many Liberal Unionists from the government, but could not oppose it without risking his cabinet post. In response to Chamberlain's warning and suggestion that voluntary Church schools receive funds from central rather than local government, [[Robert Laurie Morant]] replied that the Boer War had drained the Exchequer.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}} Chamberlain did temporarily secure a major concession: local authorities would be given the discretion over the issue of rate aid to voluntary schools. Yet even this was renounced before the Act's passage in December 1902. Chamberlain wrote fatalistically, "I consider the Unionist cause is hopeless at the next election, and we shall certainly lose the majority of the Liberal Unionists once and for all."{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}