A HEADTEACHER today handed Education Secretary Charles Clarke an empty suitcase in a bid to get it filled with Lancashire schools' missing cash.

The move came during a visit to Whitehall organised by Hyndburn MP Greg Pope to discuss the funding crisis crippling schools.

Latest Lancashire County Council figures show that many schools will be between £100,000 and £500,000 in the red by April 2004.

And they have won the backing of Blackburn MP and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans in an appeal for more money.

Headteacher at St Christopher's C of E High School Accrington, Alisdair Coates, took the suitcase to London to make his point.

And, along with Frank Havard of Hollins Technology College, Accrington, he insisted the situation cannot go on. Mr Coates said: "We have been short changed and it is just not on. Why should schools in other areas of the country be getting around £4,000 per pupil and we in Lancashire are at £2,200? We are having to increase class sizes, reduce resources and work teachers harder against a backdrop of higher results being expected."

Mr Havard added: "We are not convinced that the message is getting though that many schools in Lancashire are going to be operating in deficit by April 2004 and teaching of children will, as a result, be compromised."

By May this year the schools budget crisis was causing major concern. Mr Clarke first blamed Local Education Authorities for not passing on cash to schools. But headteachers and local education officials insisted the sums were simply not adding up.

The Government's Comprehensive Spending Review was published last summer, detailing how much money was being allocated for what and alarm bells were starting to ring.

LEA spending reviews were followed in December by the Local Government Finance Settlement, which spelt out exactly what cash was being paid out. But cash increases in real terms never took into account year on year spending increases as well as extra teaching and pension costs.

Mr Clarke has already promised extra cash to try and resolve problems.

Mr Straw said today: "I am aware of the problems and have raised the issue with my colleagues at the Department for Education and Skills.

Mr Evans added: "I am very concerned about this and will be raising this in the near future. It is vital that we do not lose teachers because of the cash problems."

A spokesman for Mr Clarke said: "He is well aware of the problems faced by some schools this year and the concerns of MPs. He will listen carefully to Mr Pope and the headteachers' views as part of ensuring the problems are not repeated next year."