ON the face of it, today's Page 1 story about education spending will bring frowns to parents and teachers.

The Government is claiming that the county council is not spending enough money on its schools - at a time when Worcestershire is complaining it is not given enough cash to educate youngsters and when our headteachers are mounting a vigorous, well-argued, campaign for more.

The Department of Education says that an average of £2,515 per pupil is making its way to the county's schools, £69 below the national average of £2,584.

And it adds to its argument by claiming the county spends £46 per pupil on administration, £3 more than the going rate in similar counties.

Whatever the strength of those claims, one fact remains crystal clear. For years, our schools have fought to educate our children without the proper resources from central government.

Worcestershire has traditionally been the poor relation of counties like Hertfordshire, Surrey, Sussex, Essex, Kent, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. There is no reason for that state of affairs to continue.

We revealed earlier this year that the Government's own funding formula left our primary and secondary schools receiving £242 and £302 less per child a year, respectively, than the national average.

The Government's new funding formula has to put that right.