Schools face fresh budget cuts

From the Evening News:

HEADTEACHERS have been warned they face having their budgets slashed further after the failure of council plans to axe up to 22 schools across Edinburgh.

City schools are already set to lose £1 million of funding, with secondaries being ordered to save £20,000 and primaries £6000. But those cuts were calculated when the council expected to save £9m by closing schools.

Today, the council warned that further cutbacks had not been ruled out as education chiefs struggle to balance the books. Opposition politicians and teaching unions today condemned the move and warned that belt-tightening would hit pupils the hardest by taking away money for equipment and facilities, as well as learning and teaching assistants and minor repairs. ....

Councillor Andrew Burns, the city's Labour education spokesman, said: "I don't feel these are justified cuts. The Executive is about to come forward with a new legislative programme, and it is absolutely inevitable that if their proposals get taken forward there will be extra money coming to local authorities. "

The education department has a revenue budget of more than £300m, there has to be a more imaginative way of making savings than cutting services."

Edinburgh South Labour MP Nigel Griffiths called on the Lib Dem-SNP coalition to reverse the move.