There will be no imminent review of Fife Council’s formula for allocating secondary school funding despite claims it is unfair.
Liberal Democrat councillors say the formula is flawed and Madras College and Bell Baxter, Inverkeithing and Balwearie high schools have been let down as the authority is forced to slash its budget for secondary schools by £1.28 million.
Cuts have meant schools across Fife have had to consider controversial proposals to reduce their budgets, with the loss of support staff and some subjects among the options.
Councillors Tim Brett and James Calder were unsuccessful in their call for a review of the formula at the last full council meeting.
The council’s SNP co-leader David Alexander said education managers would look at the Lib Dem proposals but said a review at this stage was out of the question.
Mr Alexander said Mr Brett’s proposals would be considered “to see if they are practical or if the statistics are available.”
He added: “Management will look at the proposals he has brought forward. They will not be used for this review because the consultations have begun.
“In February, all parties voted for a reduction of £1.288m in secondary schools.
“All the Liberal Democrats voted for this proposal. They are now saying they didn’t know what they were voting for.”
Mr Brett argued Madras, Bell Baxter, Inverkeithing and Balwearie were “bearing nearly 80% of the cuts in secondary education”.
He told the council meeting: “The schools themselves were not alerted to what this would mean for their budgets until the decision had been made.”
The Scottish Government considers free school meals as one of the criteria for allocating additional funding to schools.
However, Mr Brett said this was based on allocation not take-up.
He added: “While I am disappointed that the motion I proposed did not get approval, I am pleased that Councillor David Alexander, co-leader of the council, has agreed that the education service will look again at the way in which the savings are allocated to our secondary schools.
“This will include the additional criteria I suggested – free school meal entitlement, children for whom English is not their first language, children from military families, children with other special needs and looked after children.
“This will give a truer picture of need in our schools.”
Fay Sinclair, the council’s education convener, said funding for Balwearie, Bell Baxter, Inverkeithing and Madras had been cut accordingly because of falling school rolls.
She said the system was “transparent and equitable”, adding: “Every single political group chose to include these savings in their budget.”
