‘Ordinary’ parents planning day of action to raise concerns over school funding

PARENTS ACROSS England are to hold a day of action to raise concerns about cuts to school funding.

Thousands of people are expected to take part in local protests and events across the country on Friday, campaigners said.

The action is aimed at highlighting the issue of school cuts to all those campaigning in the General Election, according to organisers Fair Funding For All Schools.

The parent-led group is calling for parties and candidates to commit to addressing the funding shortfall.

Campaign co-founder Jo Yurky said: “The significant point about this is it is people who do not normally do this sort of thing.

“This is ordinary parents picking up their children and going to do this picnic protest. It’s ordinary people doing extraordinary things, people who have been moved to take action because they are so concerned about cuts to our schools.”

Schools in England need to make £3bn in savings by 2019/20 according to Government estimates, the National Audit Office (NAO) has said. The latest move by campaigners comes as political parties set out their stalls on education funding. The Conservatives have said that they will increase the schools budget by £4bn by 2022, which it says represents more than a real-terms increase for every year of the next parliament. Labour has said it will fund a National Education Service, with almost £5bn extra pumped into the English school system by 2022, by raising corporation tax from its 19 per cent rate to 26 per cent by 2021/22.

The Liberal Democrats have said schools and colleges will receive a £7bn spending boost if they win power, including £3.3bn to protect per-pupil funding in schools.

In a statement, Fair Funding For All Schools said schools are already feeling the impact of a squeeze on budgets, and that it wants to see per-pupil funding protected in real terms over the lifetime of the next parliament.