Opinion

School funding: You couldn't make it up

As the government continues to parrot its line that school funding is ‘at record levels’, frustration and anger is growing. What hope for an honest debate ahead of June 8, asks Pete Henshaw

It is heartening to see that education funding looks like it will become a key battleground in the June 8 General Election.

There is palpable frustration and anger within schools at the government’s robotic denials on school funding.
At any sign of a challenge on the issue, education ministers and even the prime minister refuse to engage and instead simply parrot the line that “spending is at record levels”.

Of course, by using such a response they are deliberately ignoring the spending and cost pressures on schools, which – as we all know very well – will lead to a £3 billion real-terms fall in school funding by 2019/20.
But the DfE refuses to tackle the issue, continuing to insist that it has “protected school funding”.

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