The Association of Teachers and Lecturers said some senior managers were still enjoying training courses and fact-finding missions – often at top hotels – even though schools are being ordered to rein in their spending during the downturn.
Members have also criticised the continuing use of private consultants who are being paid “exorbitant fees” to give advice to state schools.
A resolution to be debated at the union’s annual conference in Liverpool next week will call on ministers to “stop this misuse of taxpayers’ money” at a time of swingeing public sector cuts.
It comes just a week after the Local Government Association accused the Government of imposing a last minute £155m stealth cut in school funding this year.
Hank Roberts, an ATL official from Brent, north London, suggested that some schools were failing to play their part by blowing tens of thousands of pounds on unnecessary luxuries such as consultants and expensive training courses.
Speaking before the conference, he said: “It’s completely out of order. This is wrong at a
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The superintendent of a troubled Illinois school district told the state’s board of education today that she’s aware of the district’s many problems—including in special education—and looks forward to state intervention.
“We struggle in several areas,” East St. Louis District 189 Superintendent Theresa Saunders conceded to the board. She noted in particular the dismal academic state of one of the district’s high schools and the district’s lack of compliance in special education. She said the district has a new special education director in place this school year who is still learning the job.
Those compliance issues include hiring 23 special education-related employees, including psychologists, teachers, and speech pathologists. And, 975 IEPs for the current school year are in need of review. These issues were different than those raised previously by the state. (Thanks to IDEA Money Watch for the heads up.)
In a visit to the district last week, state Superintendent Chris Koch said “a number of evaluations were taking place, fast and furious.”
One way or another, the state plans to get involved in East St. Lou
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U student Casey L. Coombs, who is completing a Master of Science in International Affairs and Global Enterprise, is serving a fellowship in New York as UN correspondent for the Diplomatic Courier. Casey wrote last week about the situation in Ivory Coast. Todays news is that Ivorian leader Laurent Gbagbo has been detained and placed under UN police guard. RedThread will continue to link to Caseys reports.
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Councils across England are being forced to expand schools or install mobile classrooms in playgrounds to avert a major admissions crisis this September.
The move follows a surge in applications because of a rise in the birth rate combined with an influx of migrants in some areas.
Many authorities warned that the problem will reach crisis point within four years as the number of four and five-year-olds entering the state school system continues to grow.
Councils contacted by The Daily Telegraph this week suggested that without a major cash injection some children could be left without places by 2015.
It is feared that parents in the worst -hit areas patents may have to separate their siblings and send children on lengthy bus rides across boroughs to get to other schools.
In London, where the pressure is most acute, some 64,500 primary school places are needed, while Bristol must create another 3,000 reception places.
Other towns and cities such as Swindon, Luton, Southend, Coventry, Rotherham, Bournemouth, Darlington, Poole, Eastbourne and Leeds confirmed they planned to create extra capacity in the local area.
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