By Sean Coughlan BBC News education reporter

Phil Willis says schools should take violent parents to court

A former head teacher, Mr Willis says he once sent home an entire year group that was misbehaving - and the parents were "outraged".

With classroom discipline making the running in the education election debate, the Liberal Democrats say that the most effective approach to improving behaviour is to cut class sizes.

This plan to have infant classes of 20 pupils and junior classes with 25 pupils will mean recruiting an extra 21,000 teachers.

But Mr Willis also wants a much tougher line on protecting teachers from violence and abuse - and that schools should be much more ready to take legal action against aggressive parents and pupils.

"I feel ashamed that schools and local authorities do not use the full power of the law when dealing with violent pupils and violent parents.

"And the number of prosecutions that occur when students have hit teachers or where parents have hit teachers are few and far between.

'Private prosecutions'

"I don't think we need new law - we need existing law to be absolutely rigorously applied. And that means schools saying 'we'll take parents to court, we will have private prosecutions'," he said.

EDUCATION INTERVIEWS Labour: Ruth Kelly wants skills for all school leavers Conservatives: Tim Collins backs school discipline Liberal Democrats: Phil Willis says sue violent parents

But he argues against the Conservative plan to stop appeals panels from over-ruling head teachers who have excluded disruptive pupils.

"You can't give heads powers to kick kids out of school without any right of appeal - it offends natural justice and you'll end up with lots of cases in the courts. It's an eye-catching policy, but it's not feasible."

The Liberal Democrats also hope to gain votes on their policy of scrapping university tuition fees.

Among the three major parties, only the Liberal Democrats have much to cheer about when it comes to the student vote - as surveys suggest campus support for both Labour and the Conservatives has evaporated, leaving the Liberal Democrats as the most popular party.

The policy on removing tuition fees is a "very significant vote winner", says Mr Willis, particularly in middle-class constituencies with a large student population. And he says issues such as fees and the Iraq war have helped to re-energise political interest among students.

Graduate economy

The whole purpose of higher education needs to be re-examined, he says, so that it can be seen to serve a modern, global economy.

The Liberal Democrats hope to gain votes from plans to scrap tuition fees

Students are going to be studying part-time, collecting course credits from different institutions, at home or abroad, and university should no longer be considered as the traditional "three years away at a boarding school".

The 50% target for participation in higher education should already have been passed, he says, as we move towards being a graduate economy, dependent on skills and a highly-qualified workforce.

Funding the Liberal Democrats' plans for education will be a higher rate of income tax for those earning more than �100,000 per year.

Although there has been much election talk about tax promises, Mr Willis says his party is not likely to lose votes with its plans to raise tax. "We've never had a lot of hassle over it," he says.

Even people in that higher-income bracket have not been put off by the prospect of paying more, he says, when they know the money would be going to services such as education.

"That principle of saying what we're going to do with the money makes a lot of sense to people."

Scrapping A-levels

The Liberal Democrats are also in favour of implementing the exam reforms put forward by Sir Mike Tomlinson.

The government balked at the prospect of scrapping A-levels and GCSEs - but the Liberal Democrats say they would go ahead with introducing a full over-arching diploma, covering both academic and vocational elements.

But the Liberal Democrats would retain the specialist school system introduced by the government - and have no plans to remove grammar schools. City academies would also remain, but the expansion programme would be delayed until research has been carried out in how well the first wave are performing.

Mr Willis says he has a vision of education that sees it as a force for social and individual good - beyond any functional economic returns.

"We want to go back to the principle that education is a huge liberator, it's good for the soul, it's good for the condition of life.

"I think we've lost all that in a sort of utilitarian approach to education. It's become putting people onto the conveyor belt at five and watching them drop off at university. I want to challenge that."