SWINDON is facing another education crisis after the Government admitted its schools budget could be cut.

The town is already the second worst funded unitary authority in the country.

And under new Government spending plans revealed today the town could lose £2million of its education budget.

Swindon appears to have been forgotten despite a campaign to persuade Education Secretary Estelle Morris to give its schools a better deal. Her department drew up four spending options as part of its review. Swindon misses out in all four losing between £650,000 to £2 million from its annual budget of £152 million

Ms Morris claimed last year that Swindon should be able to improve its GCSE results, which are well below the national average, even without extra money.

But today the town's head teachers and their staff criticised the proposed cuts and said children will inevitably suffer.

Cuts to the budget will mean:

Fewer teachers in schools, meaning bigger class sizes.

Fewer support staff, meaning more work for under pressure teachers.

Small primary schools with fewer than 250 pupils could be under threat of closure. Infant and junior schools could merge.

Essential maintenance on the town's crumbling schools could be stopped.

No more new computers for schools, and cash for new textbooks could be cut too.

More cuts to the school transport budget.

Special needs education could be hit because of less money for specially trained teachers.

Now head teachers and politicians are urging parents to write to the Government and push for a new choice, option five, that will at least ensure the town's budget is not cut.

Swindon Council is part of the f40 group of the 40 lowest funded education authorities in the country, which have been lobbying the Government for more cash.

The Government uses a complicated formula to work out school funding. Each local authority starts with the same basic level per child and then gets extra cash depending on the social and economic circumstances of the area, for example a region where unemployment is high would get more money. This is where a prosperous town such as Swindon loses out, despite having areas of severe poverty and exam results well below the national average.

Option five, which parents are being urged to back, means a higher level of basic funding and less attributed to other factors.

South Swindon Labour MP Julia Drown has written a letter to parents that is being distributed by the town's schools asking for their support.

Ian Hill, of the National Union of Teachers in Swindon, said: "I don't see why a child in one part of the country should get any more money spent on them than a child somewhere else, because we are not talking about a small amount but thousands of pounds extra per child."

Paul Kohn, chairman of the Swindon Association of Primary Schools and head teacher of Liden Primary School, said: "Swindon's education is dreadfully funded and something must be done about it."