WE'RE not aware of the look on Local Government Minister Nick Raynsford's face when he said Worcestershire should be "very, very pleased" with the extra £12.3m to pay for education in the county next year.

But, to us, his words have the feel of someone who added a pat on the head and the suggestion that campaigners for a better deal might "run along" back home and stop making such a fuss.

An ungrateful thought? On balance, no. Not when he hasn't been one of those trying to make a blatantly unfair funding system work for so long.

And certainly not when the rise is still less than the national average - a fact which means that the gap between the well-heeled haves of the south-east and the have-nots like us has widened again.

Instead, we think only of being relieved after such a time-consuming, energy-sapping fight to prove that children in this county have as much right to a properly-funded education as the next child.

We know that view risks tempering recognition of the work of Worcester MP Mike Foster in lobbying for what is, it must be said, the best Government deal this county's ever had.

He's right in saying that the county should unite, now, and use the extra money to drive up standards.

But let's never forget that, in a system which should teach the principle of fairness, a generation or more of parents, pupils and teachers has been let down badly. And that's inexcusable.

The funding formula changes next year. Worcestershire must not be regarded as a second-class county again.