Cash set aside for failing schools 'used to fund academies' The criticisms follow a rapid expansion in the number of academies under the Coalition. Under Labour, the programme was reserved for a small number of failing schools, which were taken out of local authority control and put in the hands of a third-party sponsor. But the present Government has encouraged all state schools to push for academies status, giving heads more powers over staff pay, the curriculum, length of the school day and shape of the academic year. More than half of secondary schools and one-in-20 primaries are now academies. The report said: "Some of the budgets the department drew upon to fund the expansion had been previously earmarked for other purposes - most notably £95m originally intended for improving underperforming schools. There is a risk that the department's decision to solely use this money to create academies - many of which were already high-performing - may have been at the expense of weaker non-academy schools which could potentially have benefited from it more. This is a particular risk in the primary sector. The committee also said it had concerns that the DfE could not clearly show academies were funded on a "genuinely equivalent basis" to other schools, suggesting heads had been effectively bribed to accept academy status. "There is a risk that the expectation of increased funding may be a perverse incentive for schools to convert," the report said. But a spokesman for the DfE said: "We make no apology for the fact that so many schools have opted to convert, and no apology for spending money on a programme that is proven to drive up standards and make long-term school improvements. The Department for Education has made significant savings in the last two-and-a-half years and has also set aside significant contingencies, which have been set against the growth in academies.