The free schools farce continues

By James Valentine

Sometimes it’s good to be wrong. My prediction that the Lib Dems’ motion on academies and free schools would be defeated was too pessimistic – it was actually carried overwhelmingly. Peter Downes, the Lib Dem activist and former head teacher put forward a superb case, exposing the fallacies behind Gove’s approach – in particular the myth that schools are “run” by local authorities and “freedom” is somehow an alternative.

And yet Nick Clegg was not present during the debate and his comment about the motion in his speech was to patronise it and not take it seriously. The schools vote will not change government policy.

So how will the experiment work out in practice? The free school initiative has not been the success that Gove envisaged. Just sixteen schools have been approved in principle, and one happens to be in Bedford where I live. The proposal for the school comes from a group of teachers, rather than parents.

Several of the proposals nationally have come from teachers and although their ambition is commendable you have to ask why these individuals aren’t seeking early promotion to headships. There’s great scope within the existing system for talented school leaders to make their mark, and get salaries to match. Equally, there could be conflicts of interest if relatively junior teachers sponsor schools and possibly expect instant promotion to headships, without going through the normal competitive process or the intensive heads’ training course.

Some of the concern from the left has been about free schools being monopolised by the articulate middle classes but I see a different danger; that they could attract naive or gullible parents whose children would then have to pay the consequences.

The Bedford proposal is clearly experimental, catering for young people age 11 – 16. This is a critical period in their education. What are the consequences for these young people if this experiment fails?

The school is casting around for sites but several of the possibilities have no outside sports facilities, and one is on an industrial estate. As we anticipated, cheap and cheerful schools might tempt some parents but it’s not right to subject children to sub-standard education for the sake of free-market ideology.

As you might expect, the free school proposal emphasizes “choice” but a new academy has just opened in the town. Long-planned, and sponsored by a well-funded educational charity, it surely provides additional choices that parents seek.

If the new school gets off the ground, it will develop at the expense of budgets which are being taken away from other schools. It’s effectively a beggar-your-neighbour policy which defies logic when there’s already a surplus of school places in the area.

A group of local head teachers has written to the Department of Education asking for the plans to be reconsidered but I have little doubt that their pleas will be ignored. For Commissar Gove, mere facts mustn’t be allowed to get in the way of a good theory.

Our local Lib Dem dominated council is implementing the policy. On the free schools policy, as with BSF and the new academies, they have dithered. After Monday’s vote, at least one can say they are dithering more intensively.