Despite Staffordshire being close to the bottom in school funding, the
Government has not included the County in a new top-up scheme announced
today (26th March 2003). A total of 36 local education authorities (LEAs)
in England are to receive extra cash, but not Staffordshire. Michael
Fabricant says "This is a further slap in the face to Staffordshire
children, parents, and teachers. The Government recognises that their new
funding formula announced this year is wrong, but has ignored Staffordshire
which is the 4th worst funded shire county in the country. Back in 1997,
Labour promised that Staffordshire would get an equal share of funding with
other counties. This promise was not kept when 6 years later they announced
a new funding formula for the nation’s schools. The unfairness is still
there."

Councils and schools throughout the UK had complained that new arrangements
had left them with large shortfalls. The Government has now announced an
increase in the schools’ budgets for the 36 authorities which received the
lowest increases in education spending. Some had warned they would have to
cut staff or even put schools onto a four-day week to stay within budget.

The biggest winners include Croydon (£1.3m increase), which had warned it
might have to go to a four-day week, and Waltham Forest (£2.1m increase).
School standards minister David Miliband said today (26th March): "It is
only right that the government listens to sensible representations about any
major new system. We recognise that in some authorities the combination of a
low increase in Education Formula Spending, coupled with reductions in grant
through the Standards Fund may result in lower than expected budgets for
schools. That is why we will pay an additional grant to authorities to
ensure that the funding increase for education – not just that distributed
through the LEA formula – this year is a minimum of 3.2% per pupil."

Michael Fabricant now asks: "But why have they ignored Staffordshire? I
will be calling on all Staffordshire MPs, regardless of Party affiliation,
to join me to protest in the strongest possible terms to the Secretary of
State for Education and Skills, Charles Clarke. It is outrageous that
despite all the years of injustice while Staffordshire has had to suffer the
unfair allocation of school funding, now, when there was a chance to improve
matters slightly, this Labour Government has ignored the plight of our
County. I hope that Staffordshire headteachers will encourage parents to
write to the Secretary of State too".

The lucky Authorities awarded extra top-up money by the Government (in £
millions) are:-