Sir – I was disappointed to discover at the recent Oxfordshire School Forum evidence of the collective failure of schools in the county to spend the taxpayers’ funds allocated to them.
Despite promising in their draft budgets submitted in 2012 that they would reduce reserves by £6m, and thus both improve the standard of education in the county and give a boost to the local economy, collectively schools across the county actually added to the overall level of their reserves at the end of the financial year in March 2013.
Exactly the opposite of what they had promised. It remains a challenge for politicians to argue that Oxfordshire schools are under-funded, and that school budgets should be protected, if schools collectively put a significant proportion of the cash allocated for today’s pupils in the bank every year. In some schools, there seems to be a lack of understanding about the difference between a contingency fund and uncommitted reserves.
I hope that parents will challenge the governing bodies of their children’s schools, and especially those of the academies outside of local control, to ensure that cash is being spent on their children in order to allow them to receive the best possible education available.
John Howson, Lib Dem councillor, St Margaret’s Division, Oxfordshire County Council
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