"Education, education, education."

It was a pretty popular political slogan once upon a time and it made a bit of a comeback in the Scottish election campaign earlier this year.

Before the constitutional chaos unleashed by the EU referendum SNP politicians were desperate to tell us that, despite ignoring education for the near-decade they had been in power, it was now top of the agenda.

Nicola Sturgeon told us it was to be the driving and defining priority of her government. The attainment gap between the richest and the poorest pupils was to be the record we were to judge her on.

Then she appointed John Swinney, by a distance her most capable minister, to the education brief.

At a time when the Scottish Government was going to have big new powers over taxation it was a bold move to switch Mr Swinney from the finance brief -- or perhaps a sign that not much was going to change under the SNP with the tax powers. But more of that in a moment.

John Swinney undoubtedly inherited an overflowing intray. From the mess of the Named Person scheme to the near collapse of the Scottish child abuse inquiry, by way of rocketing student debt and some of the highest childcare costs in Britain, Mr Swinney does not have his challenges to seek.

And having lost their majority, the SNP can no longer bulldoze their plans through parliament.

That offers opportunities to opposition parties to be constructive. So here are three policies the SNP could pursue to close the gap between the richest and the rest.

First of all, unfair charges for exam appeals need to be scrapped.

All they have done since the SNP introduced them is tilt the education system towards the richest at the expense of the rest.

The most recent data shows that private schools are three times more likely to appeal their grade than state school pupils.

Exam appeals can be the difference between a young person getting on to college or university and all the opportunities that brings. It seems utterly senseless to have any sort of financial barrier in the way of that.

Secondly, we should reform the senior phase of high school to establish a Scottish Graduation Certificate.

Traditional qualifications don't work for everyone but that shouldn't be a reason to cut off opportunities.

A Scottish Graduation Certificate would be a qualification involving vocational courses, work experience, voluntary achievement and traditional exams.

In Labour-run Wales the "Welsh Baccalaureate" takes this approach, and has been much more successful than its Scottish equivalent. It's a real way of making the education system more inclusive without lowering standards.

These are two simple reforms which would make our education system fairer, that won't cost the earth, and that John Swinney could implement quickly and with the support of Scottish Labour.

My third suggestion however, will call on the education secretary to be much bolder, and address the elephant in the room of Scottish politics. Tax.

Labour would use the new tax powers of the Scottish Parliament to invest in education, and specifically a 50p top rate of tax for those earning more than £150,000 a year to invest in our schools.

Labour's manifesto for the Scottish Parliament elections said this revenue should go directly to head teachers to spend on schemes to narrow the gap between the richest and the rest.

If that sounds familiar it's because the SNP copied Labour's policy but not how to pay for it.

Tax is becoming a difficult issue for the SNP. Recently former senior SNP minister Kenny MacAskill called for progressive taxes to fund public services,

The reality is we don't get world-class public services on the cheap. If politicians are going to make promises they need to be honest about how they pay for them.

Labour would use the tax powers to invest in education because we want our young people to have the skills to compete for the jobs of the future in a Scotland where your talent and work ethic dictate your life chances, not how much your parents earn.

If John Swinney shares that vision, he should convince his successor in the finance brief and the First Minister that taxing the richest will have to play a role in getting there.

Comment by Iain Gray, Scottish Labour's education spokesperson and MSP for East Lothian.