MPs have launched a stinging attack on the government's education spending policies.

The Commons education and skills committee has published a highly critical report condemning ministers' use of expenditure. 

It concludes that improved school standards were not necessarily the result of increased cash.

The Labour-dominated committee said the party was wrong to boast that its spending had driven up exam results when no evidence exists to prove the claim.

"The government has argued that its increased investment in education since 1997 has led directly to increased levels of achievement, for example at GCSE," chairman Barry Sheerman said.

"Our report shows that it is not possible to demonstrate a straightforward link between expenditure and outcome in this way."

The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) was also slammed for the way it responded radically to the school funding "crisis" of 2003, when in actual fact the cash shortages turned out to be far less serious than headteachers and the media reported.

Reforms

The government's proposal to remove the role of local education authorities (LEAs) in passing Whitehall funds to schools has been too hastily thought through, the MPs claimed without "any degree of certainty that the changes would solve any problems that did exist".

"Evidence from the Audit Commission confirmed our view that there was no widespread funding crisis for schools in 2003/04 and that the DfES reacted to a perception of crisis," Sheerman said.

"The department has not provided adequate evidence to show that the far-reaching changes it is making, including removing all LEA influence over decision-making on schools' funding, are necessary or desirable."

And the report concluded that plans to reform the role of the department by making it more efficient, may not achieve the desired effect.

The Treasury-commissioned Sir Peter Gershon review proposed cuts of 31 per cent on the DfES's headquarters staff, but the report found that this could create problems of its own.

"We sympathise with the government's ambition to make the civil service more efficient, but we are concerned that the DfES has not adequately thought through the 31 per cent staff cut," Sheerman said.

"It may or may not produce the strategic department the government wants to see.

"The department needs to make public both the reasoning behind the proposed cuts and its assessment of the risks involved and how they are to be managed."

Response

The report will be a major embarrassment to ministers, including the new education secretary Ruth Kelly, who are putting radical public service reforms at the heart of Labour's general election campaign.

However a spokesman for the department said that the government would not be deterred from its course.

"Investment, education reform and the hard work of the teaching profession have gone hand-in-hand in significantly raising standards since 1997," he said.

"Our widely welcomed proposals to reform the school funding system will deliver financial security, improve schools' ability to plan ahead, and end the confusion of funding streams and responsibilities between local and central government.

"We are not planning to remove local authority influence over decision-making on school funding."

But shadow education secretary Tim Collins said the problems was not that the government wants to do away with LEAs and civil servants but that it is still employing too many "bureaucrats".

"Without major changes to our education system, the extra funds will just be wasted," the Conservative spokesman said.

"Instead of spending a mountain of cash on hiring more town hall and Whitehall bureaucrats to produce more bumf, Ruth Kelly should be giving the money directly to head teachers and their classroom colleagues.

"These are the people who will be able to use it to make a real difference to our children's GCSE exam results."