AN EXTRA £13.6m would be spent on education in Barnsley under radical proposals for fairer school funding which are being championed by a Conservative MP.
Tory Graham Stuart is vice chairman of the cross-party F40 group which represents the most underfunded local authorities in England.
The government has promised to shake up funding rules which mean children in some areas of the country receive less money per head to pay for their education than those in other areas.
Barnsley, the worst-funded area per head in the country, is not a member of the F40 group but Mr Stuart says under its proposals, Barnsley would be the biggest winner with an extra £460 per pupil per year - a total of an extra £13.6m.
This would mean a 10.3 per cent increase in the total schools budget for Barnsley.
Coun Tim Cheetham, Barnsley Council’s education spokesman, said: “We are criminally underfunded - 152nd out of 152. It is grossly unfair and we’ve been saying this for years.
“Some of our schools are the worst-funded in the country and when you look at the improvements we have made, we’ve been doing it on a shoe string. Just think of what we could do if we were properly funded.”
