Official "Section 52" returns by Reading Borough Council to the Department for Children, Schools & Families (previously the Department for Education & Skills) show that funding per pupil has over the eleven years of Labour control increased in real terms by 56.8% for primary and 39.1% for secondary. £125 Million has been invested in Reading's school buildings over that time, vastly more than under the Conservative-controlled Berkshire County Council.
Which is why Labour is angered by a claim in the Tory leaflet launching their Manifesto that 'it is Labour that has failed to properly fund local schools', and that the Conservatives would seek to do better!
Lead Councillor for Education Jon Hartley says: "This statement by the Tories really beggars belief. Every head knows, every teacher knows, and parents know too that with this Labour Government schools have seen huge increases in their funding - with better buildings, more teachers, more assistants, more IT and other equipment - and that pupils have got more GCSE's, more A-levels and so on as a result.
"For the Tories to claim otherwise makes you wonder where they've been since 1999 - it's certainly not in our schools where they would have seen all this for themselves!
"It's a dishonest claim on their part, but there's more. The size of the schools budget is set by central Government, and the Tories' Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, has made it clear that the schools budget will not be spared from the 'swingeing cuts' he is planning. There is no way a Tory Borough Council would be able to make up for those cuts…and they are saying they would freeze Council Tax too!
"So a vote for the Tories in May or whenever is a vote for less money in Reading schools, and a worse future for Reading children. And Cllr Cumpsty and his cronies should have the courage to admit it."
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