The attitude for achieving

Today, using the Freedom of Information Act, the Express & Star reveals what many parents have suspected for years.

The state funding of schools, from nurseries to A-levels, is a grotesque experiment in social engineering.

If a school jumps through all the right hoops, as laid down by New Labour’s education zealots, it is showered with money. If it fails to reach the approved criteria, it could receive thousands of pounds less per pupil than a school just down the road.

Tony Blair and his advisors seem convinced that any social problem can be solved by chucking taxpayers’ money at it.

In education, year after year, this theory is shown to be fatally flawed.

We all know of schools which are awash with money from Whitehall. Their reception areas are a riot of pot plants and brand-new furniture. Their IT suites are stuffed full of the latest computers.

And yet these cash-rich schools are frequently outperformed, both in terms of quality of teaching and examination results, by nearby schools scraping by on a fraction of their income.

Successful education hinges on a single word. It is not money, as Mr Blair seems to think. It is attitude.

If children come to school with a desire to learn, supported by parents who are keen for them to do well, they will succeed against the odds.

If children are raised in a neighbourhood or a culture where education is sneered at, they will fail no matter how much money is hosed at the schools.

The pity is that the greatest system for providing a good education for bright children of all classes - the grammar schools - has been virtually wiped out by successive governments.

Grammar schools were condemned by their critics because they gave some children an advantage over others.

Maybe they did. But at least that advantage was based on intelligence and attitude.

Today’s relentless spending of public money on some of Britain’s worst schools is a policy based on the wrong attitude and precious little intelligence.

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Splash the cash at new attraction

And now the good news. Today sees the first public viewing of Wednesfield’s £13 million Waterworld.

Here is a project to enrich our leisure time, to teach the life-saving skill of swimming and to bring the community together.

A wave machine, flume and a 25-metre pool for serious swimmers will put Wednesfield on the map for water lovers everywhere.

Too often, our taxes simply vanish without trace, so it’s good to see some of our money being splashed out on Waterworld. We wish it every success.