Great session in Gogarth today. A good team again and a response which was very pleasing.

The most important meeting however was with a resident who works in a senior position within education in the Constituency. Financial pressure from the poor WAG settlement means that we face real pressures to the budgets of local schools in the 2010/11 financial year. Due to accumulated reserves and careful management of resources within individual schools it is anticipated by the resident in question that front line services might be protected this year but it should be remembered that the WAG budget has not been reduced for this financial year. The real cuts will hit in 2011/12.

What came across clearly was the huge frustration felt by the resident in question about the disparity between WAG spending on education and what is spent in England. I have previously mentioned this disparity as being in the region of £500 per year per pupil but my respondent (who was clearly on top of his brief) stated that the difference is closer to £600 in relation to special needs schools and as much as £800 for secondary education. Consider those figures. If WAG spending on education was at the English level a primary school with 200 pupils would be £100,000 better off. A secondary school with 1,000 pupils would be £800,000 better off.

Why have Labour and Plaid in their role at WAG allowed such a situation to arise? What will my Labour and Plaid opponents do about this situation? Plaid Cymru this morning distributed another leaflet via the Post Office which claimed that there were 33million reasons to vote for Phil Edwards. I honestly fail to see that such a claim will do him much good but in view of the fact that his close friend and mentor, Gareth Jones AM, is considered to be the Plaid AM with responsibility for education why will Mr Edwards not challenge him on the way in which WAG fritter money away on pet projects but continue to underfund the education of our children?

WAG is seen by Plaid Cymru as being beyond criticism but in truth it is an institution where the priorities of governments, both Labour and Labour / Plaid, has led to the future of our children being shortchanged for a decade and more. When Mr Edwards calls upon you ask him why the proper funding of education is not one of the 33 million reasons to give him your support.

Guto

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