Assim avancem ainda mais e de forma mal regulada os projectos de municipalização do sistema de ensino e aquilo a que por cá chamam autonomia.

Fear of rising class sizes as schools face funding deficit

Thousands of schools in England are already experiencing a funding squeeze, with nearly one in 10 reporting they will not be able to balance their books by the end of the year, figures passed to the Guardian show.

About 2,000 primary and secondary schools are facing a deficit, with many forced to make redundancies and increase class sizes to cut costs – even before the widely predicted public spending cuts hit the education budget.

The Liberal Democrats, who obtained the figures under the Freedom of Information Act, said the findings are the “tip of the iceberg” and that school standards will decline to levels not seen since the 1980s if education budgets are not protected in the looming cuts.

The problem is being blamed on the current funding system, which is accused of not properly rewarding schools for teaching pupils in the poorest areas of the country. The local authorities worst affected include Haringey, north London, Knowsley in Merseyside, and Nottingham, which have some of the most entrenched educational problems in England.

Two thirds of local authorities in England – 101 in total – responded to requests under the Freedom of Information Act, revealing wide disparities in the proportion of schools projecting a deficit this year. In some of the poorest areas, more than one in three schools are struggling financially. Overall, 1,373 schools are projecting a deficit for this year. Repeated across the country, this would leave at least 2,000 schools in deficit.