Michael Welcomes Additional Money for Falkirk Schools

Falkirk West MSP, Michael Matheson, has welcomed the investment of an additional £1.4m into Falkirk schools by the new SNP government.

The money which is to be targeted at areas of deprivation and providing additional support for child care for young parents was unbudgeted for and provides a significant bonus for Falkirk's youngsters.

Despite this unforeseen investment there was no welcome from a stoney faced leader of Falkirk Council's Labour / Tory alliance, Linda Gow when the matter was debated at Falkirk Council's Policy and Resources Committee. Instead the Labour member bemoaned the fact that other local authorities, assumedly larger ones, received a bigger hand out.

Residents of Falkirk district were denied a balanced account of the debate in the Falkirk Herald who published only Gow's comments despite the contribution of all three SNP members of the committee to the debate.

Sadly residents of the district are rarely given a true nature of the debate within Falkirk Council which is usually dominated by the SNP members.

Speaking to the SNP's website Michael Matheson said,

"The SNP government has recognised that improving education for the most disadvantaged kids in the district is a big challenge and a big priority for the SNP.

The £1.4m additional of resources for Falkirk Council is ring fenced to be targeted at areas of disadvantage as well as providing additional nursery opportunities for young parents.

It represents a significant statement of intent from the SNP and is a major improvement on the record of the previous Labour / Liberal Executive in Holyrood."

The SNP MSP was scathing of the reaction of the Labour / Tory leader and accused her of abandoning young people in Falkirk to dogma.

He said,

"The reaction of the new leader of the council, Linda Gow, says more about her outlook than anything else.

Perhaps her lack of any grace has something to do with the fact that her coalition of Labour and Conservative Councillors have been in power for almost five months yet have not come up with one single policy initiative.

Perhaps it's the determination to target children in deprived areas that Cllr Gow objects to, after all this is a policy hardly likely to win support with her Tory allies.

Whatever, the council Administration have a challenge to match the commitment of the SNP to meeting young people's needs. The sad fact is that they do not look up to that particular challenge."