Schools spending down £400m since 2010, says Scottish Labour

Spending on schools has fallen by more than £400 million since 2010, according to analysis commissioned by Scottish Labour.

Research by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Spice) found that local authority education spending dropped from £5.3 billion in 2009-10 to £4.9bn in 2017-18, the party said.

Education spokesman Iain Gray accused the SNP of failing to protect key public services from “Tory austerity”. He said: “Protecting education spending should have been a priority for the SNP when the Tories came to power – instead there has been more than £400m worth of cuts since 2010.

“No wonder we are seeing soaring class sizes, overworked teachers and a stubborn attainment gap between the richest and poorest pupils.

“No amount of sloganeering from the Nationalists can hide the fact that they have not stood up for Scotland’s schools.

“Labour would take a different path, making the richest pay their fair share.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said the most recent provisional out-turn results show they have increased real terms overall funding to councils. He added: “We are committing £750m during the course of this Parliament to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap and ensure every child in Scotland has an equal chance to succeed – including another £120m Pupil Equity Funding direct to schools this year.

“Local authorities are directly responsible for setting school budgets and the latest figures show that local authority spend on education increased from £4.95bn in 2015-16 to £5.07bn in 2016-17.”