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North East skills spotlight: Labour MPs warn of ‘£119m hole’ in education funding

In our weekly North East skills feature, we take a look at the financial sustainability of schools in the region and reasons for the funding gap.

Eleven MPs from the region are urging the government to back the North East with funds to meet increasing education costs.

Signing an Early Day Motion (EDM), politicians are calling on Whitehall to take action on £119m worth of cuts expected to face North East schools by 2020.

What’s causing the funding gap?

MPs believe a variety of issues are impacting funding for North East schools, with the new funding formula, cuts outlined in the 2015 budget and the effect of inflation on school costs standing as prevalent reasons for the gap.

An independent report by the National Audit Office found schools across England need to make total savings of £3bn by 2020 to cope with increasing costs. The National Union of Teachers estimate the savings needed in the North East is equivalent to losing 3,203 teachers.

Tom Blenkinsop, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, who tabled the EDM, said: “These findings are extremely worrying for the North East and casts doubt on the financial sustainability of schools in our area.

“The National Audits Office’s findings show that the Government’s current plans for funding our schools aren’t good enough.

“We’re currently in the mists of a financial crisis in the NHS and this suggests we could be facing something similar in our schools by 2020. It looks the Tories haven’t got their sums right again - they can’t be trusted to run our services.

“Either our schools will have to make deep cuts that will affect the education of young people in our area or the Government will have to stump up more cash. We are asking they do the latter.”

What do you think? Should the government be doing more to counter the region’s funding gap? Is the quality of North East schooling in serious jeopardy? How will businesses be affected by the issue in generations to come.

Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.

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