6th form funding

I have for the past few years repeatedly warned the Local Education Authority that funding of Secondary Schools is a matter they need to address with the utmost alacrity. The formula's used by Ceredigion discriminate against bilingual schools like Penweddig and Dyffryn Teifi and when it comes to 6th form funding, any school with less than 700 pupils. Formulas always give advantage to numbers rather than the quality of education. With the funding proposals for 2009/10 balancing the budgets will be impossible. All bar one of the Secondary Schools in Ceredigion are in deficit. An audit report commissioned by Ceredigion in 2007 recommended that Ceredigion address underfunding issues, this has not been done. In a modification during 2007 of the funding formula for secondary schools, money was taken from the bilingual schools (Penweddig and Dyffryn Teifi) and redistributed to the other secondary schools. This has made the situation worse in both those schools and substantially contributed to the funding deficit. Ceredigion is fully aware of this issue yet nothing has been done to rectify the problem. It is time for Ceredigion Education Department to think strategically about the education system and draw up proposals about the future of the service, the current structure is creaking at the seams.