OUR front page headline (Evening News, May 20) headlined "Teachers' wages cause crisis" is misleading and pejorative.

Of course it is true that the more experienced teachers are paid more and school budgets are more difficult to manage as salaries rise. But this is not the "cause" of the cash crisis.

I'm afraid that the Labour MP for Worcester is aware of the real cause. The Government "short-changed" the schools in Worcestershire as your paper has observed many times.

"Threshold" payments created by this Government makes the situation worse.

The national insurance raised by the Government cost one per cent more. The pensions crisis cost us almost five per cent more.

These facts, together with the Government's funding, is the real cause of the cash crisis. We had to put an extra £5m into the pot this year and have passported 103 per cent to our funds to schools (one of the highest in the country).

So far, we have no teacher redundancies, nor do we have to close schools.

But I'm afraid this cannot be guaranteed unless we get a better deal next year. I'm not banking on it. This year, we have had more than 100 schools enquiring about the budgets, a significant increase - and this in spite of what we put in. I am seriously worried about the prospects.

DR GEORGE LORD, Leader of Worcestershire County Council.