NOW that MP Michael Foster has attributed the "spectacular" improvement in schools standards to the "extra cash" put into the education system in Worcestershire schools, perhaps he would now quote the exact same sets of figures for 1997 and 2004 for our direct neighbouring counties.

Not forgetting, of course, the other 33 shire counties which all come above us on the funding table, so we can get "a true picture" as he puts it, of the overall situation.

He won't, of course, because then we would all see how Worcestershire has "spectacularly" fallen from being ranked 17th out of 34 shire counties in 1997 (the average county), to an abysmal 32nd out of 34 shire counties during the last seven years.

Is this also the same Mr Foster who claimed in your letters column (You Say, Saturday, November 6) that the comparisons I made between funding amounts for Worcestershire in 1997 and 2004 were, and I quote, "utterly and totally meaningless" and also that "I shouldn't compare the two if I wish to have a true picture?"

Being ranked 146th out of 150 LEAs in terms of the amount of funding allocated by central government to our primary schools, is nothing to shout about to put it mildly, and should set the alarm bells ringing loud and clear in most people's minds.

We are "the average county" but receive anything but average funding.

HELEN DONOVAN, Evesham.