Wandsworth's primary and secondary schools could face cuts of more than £10,000, unless the Government's decision to end subsidies to grant maintained schools is reversed.
The council may have to find extra cash for 11 of the borough's former grant maintained schools, now known as foundation schools, leaving a £600,000 hole in the education budget.
If forced to meet the extra funding, more than 50 schools in the borough will begin the 2002/2003 academic year with slashed budgets.
The exact amount each school will lose depends on its size and number of pupils, but larger schools could lose thousands.
In the past the cash was provided by the Government. However, ministers at the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) have decided to withdraw the grants while expecting foundation schools to continue receiving more funding than other insitutions.
Six of Wandsworth's 11 foundation schools are secondaries with budgets running into millions of pounds.
Cabinet member for education, Councillor Malcolm Grimston, said Education Secretary Estelle Morris MP had failed to correct what he believed initially could only have been an administrative oversight.
He added: "We did not think for one minute that the Government would set out to make schools which did not go grant-maintained pay, from their own budgets, for the higher costs of those that did.
"The Government is setting school against school. Ministers must know that the only way councils can make good this loss is by making a similar reduction in the money going to those who did not choose the grant maintained option."
A number of the schools affected by the grant loss have already made formal complaints.
A DfES spokesman said: "Ex-grant maintained schools will continue to receive budget protection next year, but a contributory grant paid to LEAs to cover part of this cost will cease next year."
However, the spokesman added that most councils will get more in annual Government grants, calculated by demographic statistics, after the contribution ends in 2002.
December 5, 2001 16:30
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