By Angela Harrison BBC News Online education staff

Parents, teachers and governors lobbied

The group - from Worcestershire in the West Midlands - were joined by teachers and school governors for a demonstration outside the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday.

They then met the School Standards Minister, David Miliband, spending half an hour putting their case for more money.

Worcestershire gets less money per pupil than most similar local authorities in England, they say.

A recent survey said nearly a quarter of primary schools and a third of secondary schools in England and Wales had lost staff in the funding crisis.

The demonstration was organised by Evesham parent Helen Donovan, who earlier this year took a petition signed by 2,500 people to Westminster.

"We receive �390 per child per year less than the national average, �176 per child per year less than the shire counties average," she said.

"The shoestring is fraying," says Sarah Powers

"But it costs the same to educate a child in Worcestershire as it does anywhere else in the country.

"Teachers are on a national pay scale and computers, books and other equipment cost the same wherever a school may be, yet we receive hundreds of pounds less funding than other counties."

School funding in England is very complex. There is a basic level of funding per pupil of particular age-groups , but a number of factors can raise this amount.

Extra money is given where there is a greater need for special needs education or where there are greater problems with truancy for example.

Extra cash is also available if there are many pupils from ethnic minorities and if the population is spread thinly across a county.

Petition

At the school attended by her two daughters, four classes have been merged into three, with teachers sometimes teaching two age groups two different syllabuses.

"I don't blame the school. It is a funding problem," she said.

"Our PTA has been raising money to buy basic equipment for the school, like computers and desks.

"People don't begrudge it because they don't want their children to go without, but it shouldn't be necessary."

Miliband is under no illusion, the protestors said

The parents were joined by some head teachers from the region, including Sarah Power, the head of Millfields in Bromsgrove.

She told BBC News Online: "We are definitely in a crisis. Heads are often reluctant to tell parents the whole story because they don't want to make them panic.

"We are doing a fantastic job - but it is on a shoestring and the shoe string is beginning to fray."

She said her school had put staff training on hold and would have to do have mixed age classes to bridge the funding gap.

"Next year will be the crunch time, when we have no money to carry forward."

Parents like Chris Platt, who is also a school governor, say it is a question of fairness.

"I am angry and upset. It is just not fair. Our school is facing a �22,000 deficit."

Parent governor representative for Worcestershire Jonathan Pearsall said: "Our children are being unfairly discriminated against by postcode.

"We want the same level of funding as everyone else."

The group spent about an hour with Mr Miliband and afterwards said they were encouraged by what he had said.

"He listened and said if we could prove children were suffering he would look at individual cases," said parent Helen Donovan.