Can't ministers just be honest about education funding cuts?

Back in September, wrote about the strength of feeling amongst school leaders that motivated 2,000 of them to march through Westminster to demand more money for schools.Last week's letter from the WorthLess? campaign has brought school funding back into the headlines – and rightly so. School budgets are at absolute breaking point. School leaders have made all the obvious savings – now they are faced with having to make major changes to the way they provide education. Yet the government’s response is something I’ve described as "institutional deafness".Up to now, the debate has pretty much been defined by teachers, school leaders, parents and governors, saying, "School funding is in crisis," and the government saying, "Oh no, it isn’t.""Oh yes, it is," we repeat. "Oh no, it isn’t," they reply. Just look at the comments from ministers in this last week's school funding debate in Parliament.All the while, schools are facing heart-breaking choices. One member of the NAHT heads' union in the West Midlands put it very succinctly, recently. She said that despite relentless campaigning, including letters to the chancellor, MP briefings, local meetings and meetings in Westminster, school funding has still been reduced in real terms and the government is still not listening to the genuine concerns of school leaders, parents and governors.