Teachers' leaders are warning that education funding is under a "very real" threat amid the recession.
Bosses at the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) spoke out as they launched a campaign to protect education budgets from cuts. The EIS said students should not have to see the teaching they receive suffer because of the mistakes of others.
As the union launched its Why Must Our Children Pay campaign, the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association (SSTA) has warned that councils are imposing more and more duties on headteachers to try to save more money.
EIS general secretary Ronnie Smith said that the "bleak financial position that the country currently finds itself in was not caused by our schools or colleges or by our young people". The union said it is organising a protest in Glasgow in March to defend funding for education.
Mr Smith said: "We want to send a strong message to government at every level that our children and young people must not be forced to pay the price for the cavalier behaviour of others that led to this recession.
"The threat to education funding is very real.
"Already over the past year we have seen very significant cuts in education budgets and classroom resources right across the country.
"It is absolutely vital the frontline public services, in particular education, are protected during these difficult economic times."
SSTA general secretary Ann Ballinger said: "There seems to be a myth circulating that delegation to schools is a good thing."
But this is "being used as a smokescreen in an attempt to disguise that more and more is being imposed on headteachers as authorities try to make savings".
In an SSTA newsletter she added: "Too many councils are giving far too much authority to headteachers in terms of the employment of staff. Headteachers must not hire staff. A headteacher is not an employer."
It is a "grave concern that many councils offer no training at all in employment-related issues, and in particular in employment law", she wrote.
A Government spokesman said local authorities are given "significant levels of funding allowing them to continue to increase education budgets despite a difficult economic climate".
He said: "Total spending on education has increased over the last two years. However the funding available to the Scottish Government, and therefore to local government, is under severe pressure.
"Difficult local and national decisions have to be made about spending priorities."
Responding to the SSTA, the spokesman added: "Both research and headteachers themselves tell us that they want more autonomy to lead their schools. Of course, local authorities and central government have a responsibility to give headteachers the support they need.
