When they’re not running a bout of self-justification on why the latest writer has had no choice but to use private schools, you can count on the Evening Standard to run a puff piece vindicating the “trailblazing” Mr Gove for his agenda of private-sector involvement in state education. Continue reading
Tagged with Academies
Lucy Reese on Newsnight: “big companies gagging to get their hands on education budgets”
Regular Left Futures contributor Lucy Reese defended local authority-run education on Newsnight last night – and warned that Michael Gove’s free schools policy was paving the way for large corporations to “get their hands on education budgets”.
She appeared on the programme after a film was aired assessing the progress of free schools at the end of the autumn term. The panel also included a member of a group attempting to establish a free school in Oxford, a free school head and an academy head. Newsnight reported that all government ministers were “unavailable” to appear on the show.
She was appearing in her capacity as a school governor at her children’s primary school.
“My children go to schools in Camden, “ she opened. “A recent Ofsted report said that children who go to schools in Camden have the best chance in the whole of Britain. Our schools are controlled by the local authority and do a brilliant job.”
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Gove calling opponents of academies ‘ideologues’ is pretty rich coming from him
Gove’s fulminating against opponents of academies as ‘ideologues happy with failure’ is a bluster that will come back to haunt him. If anyone was happy to play with children’s lives and prospects for ideological reasons, it’s him. What makes him think that merely structural change like enforcing independence from local authorities, as opposed to high-quality and committed teachers, will make any difference to children’s performance in the poorest areas? Continue reading
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Why did two Labour MPs back a “more divided and elitist school system”?
Last week, Graham Brady, a former Tory shadow minister, tabled an amendment to the education bill designed to increase the number of academically selective state schools in England. The amendment was signed by 38 MPs, including two from the Labour party – Gisela Stuart and Eric Joyce. Andy Burnham, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, rightly slammed the amendment for aiming at an “outrageous expansion of selection“and “an ever more divided and elitist school system.” Why are two Labour MPs backing a right-wing proposal too reactionary even for Michael Gove to openly back? Continue reading
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Academies steamrollered through
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The Academies Bill yesterday in the Commons was a particularly brash example of Govian arrogance – the unprecedentedly telescoped parliamentary proceedings for scrutiny of the Bill, the bypassing of constitutional and democratic processes (which on Radio 4 he dismissed as over-concern for processology), the lack of consultation, and the rolling-out nationwide of an inadequately tested and highly contentious system. Continue reading