McLeod comments on Additional Support for Learning cuts

> SNP MSP for the South of Scotland Aileen McLeod today (Thursday) said she was dismayed and disappointed that Labour and Tory Councillors had rejected three opportunities to defer, reduce or remove cuts to Additional Support for Learning services in the region.
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> Aileen said:
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> “I have received a lot of correspondence on this issue from concerned parents. Many fully understood and welcomed the positive aspects of the proposals such as the service restructure and the move to area-based ASL teams. But all were concerned over the scale of the proposals.
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> “I know my SNP Council colleagues worked hard on this issue and today gave Labour and Tory Councillors three separate opportunities to defer, reduce or withdraw these savings proposals – but that they were forced through in full regardless.
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> “What makes it worse is that the SNP had proposed not one but two workable alternative budget proposals to reduce the impact of these savings dramatically – and in the second to remove them from this year’s budget altogether. Either of those options would have balanced the books but Labour and the Tories were determined to ignore them, concerned parents and Scotland’s Children’s Commissioner.
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> “It is one thing to look for savings and every part of the public sector continues to suffer under the hammer of Westminster austerity. But to force these cuts through when alternatives were on the table beggars belief.”
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