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Cash lifeline for schools after Mercury pressure

Cash-strapped Leicestershire schools have been given a Government lifeline after pressure from the Leicester Mercury.

Leicestershire became the worst-funded education authority in Britain when the Government changed the way it allocated cash to education authorities earlier this year.

This led to the hard-hitting State of Our Schools series in the Mercury, which looked at how lack of funding had forced schools to make drastic cuts and get into debt.

Now schools minister David Miliband has pledged to provide extra money, to be made available next April, for schools hit by the education funding crisis which are so in debt that they cannot get out of the red.

He made his pledge in a letter to Leicester East MP Keith Vaz, who had sent him a copy of a Mercury front page article calling for Leicestershire schools to be given more money.

Leicestershire head teachers, education bosses and Government officials will now work together to draw up a recovery plan for the worst-affected schools.

Mercury editor Nick Carter welcomed the recovery plan, but said it should not be seen as the end of the schools’ financial problems.

He said: “Education secretary David Miliband’s lifeline is just a first step in making sure our local schools get enough money to cope.

“Everyone concerned about the state of education in this area will want to see this recovery plan address the whole problem and not just put a patch on the symptoms.

“The county should not lag behind every other area in Britain when it comes to funding.

“Our local education experts and head teachers must be fully involved and we look for a comprehensive and long-term solution to this problem.”

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