I'm not a parent, as far as I know (joke, mother), but y'know, kids are the future and all that.
So I'm a bit worried by the government's plan to privatise 'free' schools from local democratic control. Michael Gove's big idea is to let all schools run themselves or pay companies to do it for them. Parents unhappy with their kids' school can set up a new one, to be run by private companies (even though this means there'll be wasted capacity).
I like local authority control because: a) I can vote against a party which is screwing it up, and hopefully turf them out b) a school backed by a big council can get better deals on services than a single school c) I don't want schools to become profit-centres for businesses d) 'free' schools are a way for a small group of loudmouths to get rid of the poor, dark, disabled and annoying kids.
e) local authorities will make decisions which are right (hopefully) for the community, not to privilege a small bunch who shout loudly. Also, it's part of this 'big society' thing, which is a huge red herring for the middle classes. The Tories/Lib Dems aren't offering us control over the really important stuff - interest rates, regulating the financial sector, defence policy, environmental regulation, transport etc. They simply want to be left to get on with the stuff that really benefits their elite group, while middle class, Daily Mail-reading parents think they're 'empowered' by negotiating with the lawyers and accountant from the hard-nosed companies (Capita? Securicor? Serco? the usual suspects, anyway) who will run these schools.
It's privatisation+deceit.
I'm also not impressed by government dictating state school policy with a 66% privately-educated cabinet, most of them multimillionaires (Cameron, Clegg, Osborne to name just some) and most of whose kids are at private schools. Porridge for us, caviar for them.
If your kid's school is crap, get involved and improve it. Don't buy yourself out of it, with your own money or with ours. Read this.
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