The postcode which delivers our letters and forms the databases for many companies and organisations is the means by which we fund our education system in England.
Education is funded from central government and locally raised taxes. You would imagine that across such a small country as ours, we would be able to organise a fair system.
But it would appear that it is not possible to achieve such a simple thing, with local and national government blaming each other.
All we want is for an agreed amount to be funded directly to the school, so that we know that the pupils of Darlington get as equal a share of the cake as pupils in Middlesbrough, Stockton, Hartlepool and east Cleveland.
At the same time, we need to know that regional differences in funding are removed, so the resources are not focused in the south.
Location really does make a difference. Darlington is the only area in the Tees Valley which does not have the advantage of additional and very substantial extra funding.
All of the other Tees Valley local education authorities have funding via Education Action Zones and Excellence in Cities, which provides many millions of pounds. Darlington residents should be proud of their schools, as each of them in their own circumstances are battling to provide an education, which compares with the rest of the Tees Valley, but without the same level of funding.
A large part of the funding which goes to schools in the region, but does not come to Darlington, relies too much on arbitrary criteria which seek to compensate for disadvantage, but really only emphasis the differences of provision.
This means we do not get enough teachers and our classes are bursting.
We need to reduce our class sizes and increase the support for pupils with learning and behavioural difficulties.
Our pupils, your children, should have access to mentors to help them with their learning. Our pupils, your children, should have access to up-to-date computer facilities on demand.
To meet the Government's agenda of social inclusion, we need to be able to pay for enough staff to have effective support for these pupils.
Our teachers cannot indefinitely make up the difference in effort and, in many cases, from their own pockets. Equitable funding for Darlington is essential.
David Henderson, Richard Appleton, Eammon Farrar, Linda Hartley, Shelagh Potter, James O'Neill and Sue Byrne
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