Surrey Schools Face Cash Loss Due to Academies
Labour County Councillor Victor Agarwal has commented on the answer to a written question he received at a recent County Council meeting.
“Already Surrey Schools and Colleges have lost £2.576M from its education budget through grants being made to the academies being set up in the County. A further £2M will be lost in the 2012/13 period,” he states. “Any school in receipt of a windfall through becoming an academy should be aware that it comes at the expense of other Surrey schools.”
“If a calculation is made of the effect on the money for our schools of all the academies who have indicated they will convert to academies the loss to Surrey is 28.8M” he reports.
“Real cuts in the money for education welfare and schools improvements amounting to 2.576M have already been made as a consequence of academy conversions here,” he points out.
Councillor Agarwal is seeking more detailed information about how money for the County’s schools is being siphoned off to schools becoming academies. “The details of this a far as Spelthorne I have obtained are very worrying. “It amounts to a deduction just for Spelthorne of £7.386M”
Murray Rowlands a former member of Surrey’s Education Committee has criticised the way Surrey has got into a situation where so many Heads of Surrey schools are opting for academy status.
“Questions must be asked why Heads are willing to face the difficulties involved in buying in the special support provided by Surrey. Is it because of the poor quality of the County’s support system for schools here? For instance there is great criticism about the way the attempt to amalgamate Kings International and Tomlinscote School was managed in Camberley,” says Mr Rowlands.
Labour in Surrey are writing to the Shadow Education Secretary Andy Burnham pointing to the situation where many schools in Surrey faced with a drop in their funding through academy spending are virtually being blackmailed into seeking academy status.
