There was some very good news today in the fight for fairer funding for Cambridgeshire schools. Lib Dem Schools Minister David Laws announced that schools in the county will receive an extra £20 million in funding from next April.

Back in January Cambridge Lib Dem MP Julian Huppert led a debate in Parliament on the issue and explained how the county’s children are paying for poor funding decisions made over the last 30 years. The county gets far less per pupil each year than the English average which means the county’s schools are short changed by millions of pounds. Ever since the Tory county council under Baroness Blatch cut back on funding for schools in the 1980s, Cambridgeshire schools have been under-resourced. Government after government has continued to underpay Cambridgeshire schools.

Many people have supported the campaign which has involved the Schools Forum and the Cambridge News. For all of us the plan for a seven per cent increase is very welcome news and will mean that our children will no longer be taught in schools that are amongst the lowest funded in the country. The new settlement will give a two form entry primary school with 375 pupils an extra £275 per pupil per year, amounting to a total for the school of more than £100,000 per year.

There is now a consultation, and in a bid to make sure the extra funding happens Julian Huppert has launched a petition – http://bit.ly/CambsSchoolsFunding – calling on Secretary of State Michael Gove to implement the new settlement in full as quickly as possible. Please take a couple of minutes to sign the petition.