CAMPAIGNERS wanting more money for Worcester-shire's schools hope a new Government league table will add strength to their argument.

Worcestershire parents have long complained that the county's schoolchildren get the thin end of the wedge because the county fails to attract the same amount of money as more rural or more urban areas.

But the Government has never produced statistics, which can be easily compared with other counties and previous years.

Worcestershire's schools receive £3,690 per pupil this year, compared with £3,960 in Herefordshire, £4,530 in Birmingham and £3,850 in Shropshire.

Fair funding campaigners say that the low levels in Worcestershire are bad enough, but they are exacerbated by the fact that they increase by smaller than average amounts each year as well.

Worcestershire has re-ceived a 32.2 per cent (£900) boost since 1997, while Herefordshire's has gone up 37.9 per cent (£1,090) and Birmingham's, 48 per cent (£1,470).

Leading campaigner, Helen Donovan, a mother-of-two from Evesham, said: "It's just not fair on children in Worcestershire.

"It just means that at a school in Worcestershire we have to rely more and more on PTAs to fund-raise and have to ask parents for their money.

"The extras are often paid for but this masks the real problem. Just imagine how good the schools could really be. In the past we've had to calculate the figures ourselves but now, for the first time, the Government has produced a table and have told us we can safely make these comparisons.

"We have a long way to go to catch up with other authorities."

The Department for Education and Skills said that comparisons should take into account that the 1997 figure is an estimate because Worcestershire did not exist independently.

The department also says that important changes will be made to school funding from next April.

Schools minister and Redditch MP Jacqui Smith said: "We propose a new ring-fenced grant to local authorities to cover funding for individual schools.

"The new arrangements will give schools continued stability and greater predictability in their funding."