A running sore in the Tory party is the way in which school funding is allocated. Under the current arrangements, a school in a rural area receives less money per pupil than one in a town or city, and this causes a great deal of resentment. It means that schools in the best-funded areas get £6,297 per head, but those at the bottom of the list receive just £4,208 per pupil.
Conservative MPs have held repeated meetings with ministers about this arrangement, but got nowhere before the election because the areas they were worried about were more likely to be safer territory for the Tories. They had a particularly grumpy meeting with Nicky Morgan before the election in which this was made clear to them, and which many left in a bit of a huff.
Now that the election business is out of the way, MPs are noticing a greater readiness from ministers to listen to their concerns about the current funding imbalance.
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