Small and Underfunded Cornish Schools Face Closure

In December last year the coalition government announced that Cornish schools would receive less than half the funding than schools in the City of London. ‘Guaranteed Units of Funding’ (GUF) for Cornwall amounts to just £4663 per pupil while the figure for London is £9373.

At the same time, new legislation encourages schools to convert to ‘Academies’ and to opt out of funding by Local Authorities in favour of receiving centralised funding from Westminster.

Despite attempts by the Conservative leader to prevent it, Mebyon Kernow leader, Dick Cole, gained the support of Cornwall Council in calling for a commission to investigate fairer funding for Cornwall.

Coalition policies mean that the very nature of our smaller schools in Cornwall puts our children at an unfair disadvantage. This is because as well as being short-changed with their funding, the new academy system means that there is less money available to Cornish councillors to provide support for the smaller schools. There is a very real risk that many community based schools will be forced to close – children as young as five years old could be forced to make bus journeys just to get to school.

Cornwall needs politicians who understand Cornwall’s unique challenges and who are prepared to put Cornwall first.

Cornish Children are only worth half as much as those from London

In December figures for the ‘Guaranteed Units of Funding’ (GUF) for 2011-2012 were published by the Department for Education. While children in the City of London will receive £9373 per pupil, Cornish children will have to make do with £4663. Cornwall is 136th on the list of 151 local authorities, in terms of educational funding, with each pupil receiving over £400 less than the average child in England.

Last July, Mebyon Kernow leader, Dick Cole, proposed that Cornwall Council called on the new coalition government to set up a commission to investigate fairer funding of Cornwall’s public services. The resolution was passed despite attempts by the Conservative leader of the Council, Alec Robertson, to stop it.

While Clegg and Cameron shuffle funding around the system and call it a pupil premium, Mebyon Kernow call on Cornwall’s politicians to demand fairer funding for Cornwall’s children.

Cornwall’s rural setting and culture of smaller, less centralised communities means that we face challenges that schools in London simply don’t have. Transport, recruitment and the cost of supply staff are particular problems.

It’s time that our politicians recognised Cornwall’s needs and acted to put Cornwall first rather than grandstand for the press and then blithely carry on following their London based party political policies.