"What kind of children are we raising if they don't even get to see the world outside the school gates?" Mandi Lee
Parent, Mandi Lee was staggered when she received a response to her Freedom of Information request on parental fines from Salford City Council. During the year 2017-18, a massive £118,920 was collected from parents, presumably for taking their children out of school to go on holiday. But the money didn't go back to cash-strapped schools directly...
"Money generated comes back into the Local Authority as income and it supports council services generally" sniffed the Council in its response.
"I think the money should go back into education as the lack of funding is clearly apparent" Mandi tells the Salford Star "My child has not been on a school trip at all in three years and they have no art supplies, and have even had to raise funds this year for sports equipment. The schools would benefit greatly from this money!"
Instead, the fines money could have gone to pay for anything, including the Salford Council staff trip to MIPIM in the South of France, or the £669 spent in August this year on Flybe staff travel to God knows where on 'corporate business'...
"Children are not allowed to go on holiday with parents and nor do schools have funds for trips" Mandi adds "Where is the culture? What kind of children are we raising if they don't even get to see the world outside the school gates and have no equipment for art, science or physical education?"
Three national unions representing the schools sector have slated an 8% real-terms decline in total school spending per pupil over the past eight years, thanks to the Government...
"So much is contingent upon a properly funded education service – the life chances of young people, the economic and social welfare of the nation, and the goal of greater social mobility" said Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders a couple of weeks ago "All of this is being put in jeopardy by the Government's continued failure to provide sufficient funding for schools and colleges."
Salford Council could help alleviate some of this through parental fines funding. But, instead, it's going into the Council's general coffers, rather than being distributed directly to schools in the city.