Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones has welcomed the Government’s announcement that schools in North Yorkshire will receive £7.1million extra funding in 2015/16.
The extra money is to address a historic unfairness in the way school funding is allocated which has meant that spending on North Yorkshire pupils has fallen back compared to the majority of local authorities.
The money is part of a proposed £350 million boost to the 63 most underfunded local authorities.
Andrew Jones commented: In North Yorkshire we have good teachers, good schools and good results. Nonetheless our funding per pupil has fallen steadily behind until now.
This announcement means that an extra £97 per pupil will be spent in North Yorkshire. It will bring to an end a system of education funding where for no apparent reason pupils across the country attract different levels of funding often in very similar types of areas.
The MPs for the areas most affected have been working together to get a fairer deal. I have been part of the group taking our message to education ministers so am really pleased that we have a good result. Despite the significant progress that has been made, we still face an eye-watering deficit as a country , but investment in our young people has to be the right answer for the future.
