Sir, - As an ex-teacher and as a school governor, I am most concerned about the misleading and populist phrases emanating from Conservative Central Office and especially from William Hague, our MP, and from John Dennis, the chairman of the education and library services committee on North Yorkshire County Council.

They suggest that we should do away with local education authorities and give the money to individual schools instead.

This is strange, for Mr Dennis is basking in the glory of a recent OFSTED report on his LEA which clearly states the role of the LEA is to :

l provide leadership;

l provide a high quality service;

l provide an infrastructure for planning a large complex service;

l secure the best possible resourcing and deploying those resources so as to give value for money;

l be accountable to members of the public.

How is the chairman able to reconcile the statement of his political master with his views as the chairman of the education committee?

I just wonder if he has even considered the implications of doing away with the LEA? It seems to me that the cost of employing personnel in individual schools or clusters of small schools to cover the work vacated by the LEA would be far more than the increased income.

The educational guidance, legal, architectural and social role of the LEA seem to have been totally ignored by the Tories who as usual are myopic about the purse strings, especially their own.

It was recently reported in the National press that "Mr Hague was struck by the experience of a school in his Richmond constituency which lost a teacher at the same time as the LEA is spending £98,000 fitting new windows it does not need".

Again, a twisted sound bite - the money for the windows is probably government funded and not from the LEA and as the school has a falling role. The money to pay the teacher (under LMS, a Tory legislation) is not there.

It seems we must learn to beware of these shallow statements from the Tories in the lead up to the next election. The Tories seem to be so desperate in education since the Labour government came into power in 1997, not to acknowledge the massive increases in cash directly into schools and the vastly increased resources through the SSA money to allow the LEA to continue to raise standards especially in literacy and numeracy in all of our schools.

I trust your readers will celebrate the successes of pupils in our North Yorkshire schools from special needs to A-level and vocational courses and to appreciate the guidance of the LEA, the skilful management of our headteachers and the dedication of our teachers in their professional achievement.

Roy Hutchings

Secretary, North Yorkshire County Labour Party local government committee.

Red Briar,

Morton-on-Swale,

Northallerton.

Give power and cash to schools

Sir. - The first priority of any school governor is to their school, pupils and parents.

At a meeting, held in secret, the controlling Labour cabinet on Darlington Borough Council decided that all governors appointed by the council should sign a protocol forcing them to agree with council education policies.

This is a disgraceful attempt to stack school governing bodies with labour cronies in order to implement council decisions against the wishes of the school.

Following a public outcry the council has appeared to back down on this occasion. However it is another reason why schools should be freed from the political control of councils and be allowed to make their own decisions to deal with the issues facing that particular school.

An incoming Conservative government will take schools out of council control and give governors, teachers, parents and pupils the freedom to influence their own future. Their budgets will be increased by an average of £540 per pupil and they will manage and spend that budget on the priorities which they decide.

Government will get off the back of teachers. All those hundreds of hours wasted filling in pointless forms will disappear so that teachers can spend more time with their pupils.

By trusting teachers to teach and headteachers to run their schools it will raise the morale of our teachers and the status of the teaching profession in our society.

Parents will be free to apply to whichever school can best bring out the potential of their child and Government money will then follow the pupil putting financial power behind parental accountability.

Taking schools out of the political control of councils will mean higher standards for pupils, better discipline in our classrooms, real choice and accountability for parents, a great expansion in the diversity of education provision, freedom for teachers to teach and the creation of a culture of continuous improvement in the education system which our children deserve.

TONY RICHMOND

Conservative prospective Parliamentary candidate for Darlington.

The Headlands,

Darlington.

We are good value for money

Sir, - In that last two weeks both the Labour government and the Opposition have made statements about the money spent by Local Education Authorities (LEAs).

Though saying different things they both send the message that LEA's spend a lot on red tape at the expense of children.

As far as North Yorkshire County Council is concerned they are wrong.

The DFEE's own figures confirm that we spend just £33 per pupil on central administration - that's 1.2pc of budget. All the rest of the county council's budget for education goes direct to schools or is spent on services for children such as special educational needs and home-to-school transport.

In its inspection report just last month OFSTED confirmed that North Yorkshire County Council actually makes things better for schools and children - and does so at very low cost.

They concluded North Yorkshire "strives to achieve excellence in all that it does". At £33 per pupil, that's got to be very good value for money.

Coun JOHN DENNIS

Chairman of the education and library services committee,

North Yorkshire County Council

County Hall,

Northallerton.