ANDREW Watson again fosters the illusion that our schools are awash with cash.

Perhaps he should arm himself with facts and speak with headteachers throughout the county before he makes such sweeping statements.

He states that schools have large reserves of cash. In his letter he fails to mention that the reserves are, in many cases, allocated to the school budget at the end of the financial year, thus appearing to be a carry over (or reserve) but are really for expenditure in the new financial year and is already allocated.

If he wants to quote cash reserves we should be looking at all other comparable counties figures.

Let's see who has the largest cash reserves then. Quoting Worcestershire's figures alone are utterly and totally meaningless.

So you see, it's elementary, my dear Watson.You only have to open your eyes and its blaringly obvious to see educational discrimination all around.

MARK BRUNNER,

Redditch