John Blake, head of education at the Policy Exchange thinktank, is in denial about the state of school funding. We know that, for the government, one of the most problematic symptoms of the funding crisis facing our schools is the number of parents being asked to prop up their school budgets with regular payments. I agree that this is “unnecessary, unethical and irresponsible”, but, as a parent, I point the finger of blame at the government, not at our trusted school leaders. Mr Blake’s attempt to sow division between parents and the schools where we send our children each day is pompous and patronising, but also shows how toxic the problems surrounding school funding are for the government.

As parents, we can see what is really happening in our schools. We do not need Mr Blake’s help to understand the financial context that schools are operating in - these facts have been laid bare for us by respected independent institutions. Since 2015 funding has failed to keep pace with rising pupil numbers and escalating costs, so that almost 90 per cent of schools in England will have seen cuts in per-pupil funding by the end of this decade. That basic arithmetic is backed up by the National Audit Office, the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Public Accounts Committee.

The only people who fail to acknowledge this are Department for Education ministers such as Nick Gibb and Conservative-friendly thinktanks who choose to use July 2017 as their year zero and close their eyes to cuts inflicted over the last two years.

Cuts that, yes, are forcing schools to ask parents for financial support, to lose staff, to narrow the curriculum, to increase class sizes. We know this is happening because parents see it with their own eyes. As the service-users, we are uniquely positioned to take the message of the negative impact of these cuts to the government. 

Fuming about funding cuts

It is interesting to see Policy Exchange now extolling the virtues of Labour’s spending plans since 1997 - and telling school leaders how blessed they are to have received that funding. But with that money came extra responsibilities for schools, greater expectations from parents and, yes, massive improvements - London being a global success story.

So MPs and ministers would do well to listen to parents such as Anita Smith, whose children attend a school in Theresa May’s own constituency, who was fuming on receiving a letter asking her for money. But she wasn’t fuming with her school, rather, she said: “I’m so angry at the government that the school has had to resort to this.”

To suggest that money could be saved if parents get embroiled in determining the terms and conditions of the staff at our schools, or by monitoring the effectiveness of the training that staff undertake, is pure fantasy. The chair of the Public Accounts Committee has written to the DfE to point out that it’s not clear where they expect £3 billion of savings to come from.

Parents are not going to sit back and allow any government to start undoing the progress that was made in our schools as a result of previous funding commitments. We’re going to listen to our headteachers when they tell us the money is running out and that saving on photocopying isn’t going to bail us out. Headteachers are trusted by parents. We leave our children in their care each day and when they speak we listen. And we know that when parents speak, politicians listen.

Parents’ campaign

That’s why parents, many for the very first time, have been campaigning against school cuts in communities across the country - from Cumbria to West Sussex. And that’s why education secretary Justine Greening has been forced to accept that we were right all along with her funding announcement in July.

We aren’t asking for more money, we are asking for the money that was promised to us in 2015 but not delivered. We were promised that per-pupil funding would be protected and that a new national funding formula would be introduced which would make funding fair. But as the IFS has pointed out, the education secretary’s £1.3 billion amounts to a 4.6 per cent cut to per-pupil funding from 2015-2020. It shouldn’t come as any surprise that a new formula won’t provide funding justice when no new funds have been made available to deliver it. Don’t promise us a new formula if you don’t intend to fund it.

We won’t listen to anyone who tells us that the next generation isn’t worth investing in or that parents need to lower our expectations and count ourselves lucky that our children’s schools have not faced bigger cuts. We were promised no cuts and we will fight for our schools.

So perhaps Mr Blake could do with his own reality check, to understand that parents are capable of assessing the facts and coming to our own judgement on this issue. We are making our voices heard in large numbers - whole school communities standing side-by-side across the country - to fight for the funding we were promised: that all of our children deserve. That is why the chancellor now needs to provide a full remedy to this very troubling situation.

Joanna Yurkey is co-founder of the parent-led campaign Fair Funding For All Schools

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