YP Comment: Injustice of school funding

THE RESPONSE of the Government to the tirade of criticism brought on by its changes to school funding is always the same: the present system is unfair and many schools will gain as the result of a far more equitable distribution of funds.

The picture that is emerging, however, is a very different one. Yes, under current arrangements, rural areas have been losing out to towns and cities, but because many struggling schools are in urban areas, the planned reallocation will take money from those already near the bottom of the league tables and redirect it to schools that are doing very well.

In Yorkshire, for example, this would have a major impact on Bradford where under-performing schools have kept the city in the lower echelons of the league tables for many years.

MPs such as Philip Davies in Shipley and Clive Betts in Sheffield have been drawing attention to the injustice of these plans, yet they are only two of the voices in a growing cross-party protest as the full effect of the reorganisation becomes apparent, particularly when set against the background of a reduced national budget and rising wages, pensions and other costs.

With schools in this region alone facing the reality of having £300m cut from their budgets – an average of £442 per pupil – purely as a result of the new formula, surely Education Secretary Justine Greening will see the folly of these changes and urge the

YP Comment: Injustice of school funding - formula needs a rethink