DAN Kendrick (Evening News, Wednesday, January 11) in his regular column makes an important and telling point about every child being of equal "worth".
He correctly reports what Ruth Kelly said in her recent speech. As a parent of three children in Worcester City schools I could not agree more.
But I fear he has, by accident, given a false impression over the school funding formulae which disadvantages our county.
He suggests that Whitehall values the "worth" of a Worcestershire child at £390 per year less than average. I do not defend the formulae, and parents know of my long term involvement in the campaign for fairer funding but, Whitehall actually believes it "costs" £390 per year less than average to educate a local child while it values the worth of every child equally.
Local campaigners, of which I am proud to be one, know that we disagree with Whitehall's view of what it "costs" to run our local schools compared to our neighbours.
It is vital we stick to this narrow argument. Whitehall can easily justify how it values the "worth" of a pupil. Where it is being criticised, by us, is that we believe their "cost" estimate is wrong.
All pupils are of equal "worth" but some "cost" more to educate than others. We have to agree on this statement, otherwise those with special needs, or those that require extra support would never get it. Even our own LEA accepts this notion.
That is why per pupil funding varies so much from school to school within Worcestershire, yet they also value every child of equal "worth".
MICHAEL FOSTER MP
House of Commons, London.
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