OVER 1,000 councillors across the political spectrum will petition the government today to pump billions of pounds into Britain’s “desperately overwhelmed” schools.

The letter, which was handed in to Education Secretary Damian Hinds today, has called on the Tories to reverse the widespread spending cuts across the education system.

Among the councillors to back the urgent call include those from a group called F40 councils, which represents 42 English local authorities with historically low funding for education, most of which are Conservative controlled.

They say that the incoming spring Spending Review, which will look at ring-fencing education funding, is an opportunity for these cuts to be reconsidered.

The letter, which is due to be handed in to the Department for Education (DfE) headquarters, said: “Our excellent state-funded schools have lost out in billions of pounds in funding since 2015.

“The funding crisis has become so overwhelming that, according to the Education Policy Institute, almost a third of all council-run secondary schools are now in deficit, and eight in 10 academies are in deficit, according to last year’s Kreston UK report.

“Many schools are now desperately overwhelmed as more and more students are competing for fewer and fewer resources.

“Compounded by biting cuts to local council services, in addition to the teacher recruitment and retention crisis, the current settlement is not tenable.”

The petition also drew attention to the growing lack of resources in schools, which educators have recognised as a serious problem across the education system.

Councillors also criticised the cuts made to funding for special needs education (Send), and demanded that measures are put in place to ensure that the funding received for Send schools and institutions is adequate.

The letter follows a 2018 report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) that showed that total schools funding had fallen by 8 per cent in real terms between 2009 and 2018.

Labour Southwark councillor Maggie Browning, the National Education Union (NEU) councillors network convener, said: “The cuts to school budgets have reached epidemic levels in England and Wales.

“Increasingly, tighter funds mean schools across the country are narrowing their curriculum and cutting subjects like drama and art, which is a travesty.

“Schools are also struggling to provide adequate support for students with special educational needs and some are even closing early or starting late to save money.

“Teachers’ workloads have become unsustainable as they are asked to do more and more with less, including larger class sizes and fuller timetables with less support.

“The Spending Review is a vital opportunity for Damian Hinds to commit to a full reversal of the cuts to school budgets and a significant increase in per pupil funding, particularly for Send.”

NEU joint general secretary Kevin Courtney said this latest action “completes the circle of criticism” that has come from unions, campaigners, MPs and now local authorities against school funding cuts.

He told the Star: “The fact that this letter is coming from Conservative councillors too is really significant.

“We’re seeing class sizes going up while school funding is going down. At the same time teacher recruitment and retention is at an all-time low. These school funding cuts are very real and very damaging.”

A DfE spokesman said: “School funding in England is at its highest ever level and since 2017 the government has given every local authority in England more money for every pupil in every school, while allocating the biggest increases to the schools that have been most underfunded.

“Nonetheless, we do recognise the budgeting challenges schools face.”