I DON’T blame MPs Claire Perry and Michelle Donelan for mentioning the ‘extra’ £1.3bn funding for schools in their columns last week, after all there has been very little good news coming from this government for a long time. But even this claim cannot go unchallenged.
The money is recycled from the existing Department for Education budget. No new money has been promised by the Chancellor. The bulk of it, £600 million, comes from mysterious and unspecified savings in the Department of Education. 
Whether these will actually be achieved remains to be seen, but if they can be achieved one wonders why they were not made earlier.
Another £200 million will come from the free schools budget and the abandoned grammar schools programme by simply giving responsibility for building new schools back to local authorities. 
Why the government has been paying over the odds for free schools in the first place is another question. 
A further £420 million of the announced funding will be taken from the capital budget for building and repairs, most of which was earmarked for school sports facilities.
The Conservative Party manifesto promised to increase the overall schools budget by £4 billion by 2022 but what they are actually doing is robbing Peter to pay Paul. 
Schools are still facing cuts to their budgets once inflation and increasing class sizes are taken into account.
PETER FOSTER
Hartfield
Devizes