WHAT a lesson to teach our children. Work hard to earn success and you will be penalised for it.

That is the depressing principle of the Government's new school spending policy. City of York Council is an excellent education authority, as confirmed by the Audit Commission last month. Teaching standards are high, examination grades impressive and pupils are well motivated.

You would hope that a Government committed to "education, education, education" would reward such good results. Not a bit of it. York has been given a miserly Whitehall grant, leaving schools bosses scrambling to save nearly £2 million.

The reason? The Government wants to give more money to poorer areas. An admirable intent, but unfair in practice.

For a start, York is a poorer area, in terms of education spending. The council receives a shocking £200 per pupil less than the national average. All its success is built on a shoestring, and now it must make more cuts.

Secondly, a Government which aims to drive school standards higher should not drag down high flying education authorities in order to prop up the strugglers. It must allocate adequate resources across the board.

The extra money made available to school building budgets is welcome. We report tonight how Fulford's £3 million expansion will soon be underway.

But school staff may be lost in the York savings purge. The benefits of better classrooms are soon undermined by a reduction in teaching resources.

This is not the way to invest in our children, or buoy sinking teacher morale. But it is typical of the Government's public service strategy.

Every week it sets a new target or reveals another initiative. Ministers demand more from the fire service, the police, hospitals and schools, but does not give local authorities the money to pay for it. Consequently, income tax stays unchanged while council tax soars. But voters are wising up to the ruse. From York to Yeovil they are realising that the buck stops in London.

Updated: 11:08 Thursday, January 09, 2003