'Good schools' to hand back £85m savings

Good schools could be forced to hand back thousands of pounds every year under a new Government "tax" on prudent head teachers, the Daily Telegraph reports today.

For the sake of grabbing back an amount of money equivalent to less than a week of what the government plans to hand to the audit-failing EU under the new EU budget deal, head teachers at some of the best-performing state schools in the country may be forced to axe staff or raid library budgets to finance improvements to facilities rather than tapping into their savings.

The little-noticed move could affect as many as 20,000 primary, secondary and special schools and would require any school with extra money at the end of the year to hand a share back to local authorities.

Schools are set to lose 5% of outstanding balances, even if it has been set aside to fund new buildings, playground improvements, sports facilities or drama studios.

Mick Brookes, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said "Schools are going to have to find that five per cent additional money from somewhere else.

''This includes the money schools use to buy books for the children, teaching materials and sports equipment.

"If schools have to give back £25,000 or more, it could mean losing a teacher."

Pauline Cox, the head teacher at Tiffin Girls' Grammar School, Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, which came top in the country in one GCSE league table this summer, said: "We have a 1950s school which is falling to pieces and needs repairs, which cost money.

''We already have to scrimp and save to do this, and now whatever we manage to pull together for the next year will be taxed. I feel robbed. The fury among teachers is remarkable."

In a Parliamentary answer to the Liberal Democrats, the Government admitted that £988 million of last year's surplus – almost 63% of the total – had been "committed for specific purposes", which may include buildings.

David Laws, the Liberal Democrat children's spokesman, said: "This Government plan is a tax on good schools. It is taking from the prudent head teachers that are about to fund major capital projects and giving to less prudent ones and those who have already spent their money."

Andrew Baker, the head of Westcliff High School for Boys, Essex, said: "I have never heard a proposal that is so devious and unprincipled as this.

''It will encourage schools to make irresponsible expenditure to avoid the taxman."

Terry Molloy, the head of Claremont High School, Brent, north London, said: "This money is meant for my children, to make their education better. Why should they be punished like this?"

Under the new EU budget deal, Britain is set to pay the audit-failing EU £6bn (net) a year - that's £115m every week until 2013.

This deal is expected to come before MPs for approval sometime in the next session of Parliament, starting next month.

Can MPs really justify voting billions of pounds extra a year to such a wasteful organisation as the EU, while the government has to resort to clawing back fractions of that amount from prudent schools seeking to improve their facilities?

Has the EU now usurped 'Education, Education, Education'? MPs will confirm their real priorities with their votes on the European Communities (Finance) Bill.