HOW typical -- in a week that I read (LET, January 19) about £13million being spent on a new mainstream school, albeit in Blackburn, I received information from my son's school that special education, yet again, is under threat in the rest of Lancashire.

An easy target! I believe Blackburn with Darwen Council have had their pot at it -- now, it's Lancashire's turn.

Yet again, one justification is that integration of special needs pupils in mainstream will be pursued.

Nice for the bureaucrats, not so nice for the parents as they see their offspring's education neglected as 'normal' children are given priority.

And, one even has to put up with parents of 'normal' children complaining, in writing (I still have such a letter in my possession) about the (mis)behaviour of said offspring.

'Normal' children, of course, do not misbehave. But such a policy is cheaper and in Blairite Britain, as with the previous mob, that is the bottom line.

Having worked at the same college as Education Secretary David Blunkett -- Barnsley College of Technology from 1972-79 -- and heard his diatribes on South Yorkshire County Council and elsewhere, against the Tory Government, I find his present stance on education almost unbelievable.

Poacher and gamekeeper?

Educational values are only of interest to him if they can be expressed in monetary terms. And the education of special children must have very low 'added value.'

J S KENT (Mr), Fairfield Close, Clitheroe.