Comments on: Governance issues for free schools

By: No Cuts

No Cuts — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 11:26:56 +0000

For his children & those of other wealthy parents, Toby wants to Free Schools from the impact of the relative poverty his party created through attacks since 79′ on progressive taxation and a programme of privatisation that transferred wealth to those already well off enough to benefit through share portfolios, from the billions extracted in profits. Since 79′ Tories halved income tax on the 350,000 people earning salaries over £150,000 while doubling VAT. Cuts in public spending to afford these tax breaks will further inequality and massively impact the educational outcomes of children born into families forced to pay the price. Disgracefully, Tories now criticise state education (and the NHS) for not being able to compensate for the impact of the relative poverty the Tories, uncorrected by New Labour, created. Tories are cruelly aware comparator countries are not blighted by the relative poverty they orchestrated. For evidence see Professors Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk

Children do not choose whether they are born into privilege, and Toby needs to commit to the educational outcomes of all children, a comprehensive approach, not just his own. Social mobility is just changing places & hides responsibility for Britain now having a gap between rich and poor exactly the same as in Nigeria, much worse than in Jamaica, Ghana or the Ivory Coast and twice as bad as in Sri Lanka or Ethiopia.

By: Rosalyn

Rosalyn — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 21:29:50 +0000

Hi there, Toby,

Thanks for the response. And for telling me I’m confused, and for pointing out that I don’t seem to know much about anything.

Thanks also for the link, which doesn’t appear to lead anywhere, instead telling me the page you refer to doesn’t exist, may have moved or have been deleted. No wonder people are worried. The information we seek doesn’t appear to exist .

By: Francis Gilbert

Francis Gilbert — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 11:18:15 +0000

Exactly what are we misinformed about, Toby? Please elaborate!

By: Toby Young

Toby Young — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 11:07:37 +0000

Rosalyn, The various governance arrangements that free schools may put in place can be found here:

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/typesofschools/freeschools/a0061430/setting-up-a-free-school

On the right hand side you’ll see a list of pdfs you can download. Click on the one labelled:
“Free Schools Memorandum and Articles of Association.”

Fiona and Francis are, as usual, misinformed – or deliberately misrepresenting the true position for ideological reasons. You seem a little confused, too. Not sure what you mean by “fledgling schools”, but “existing private sector education providers” are not allowed to set up free schools. No, the main involvement of “existing private sector education providers” is as “improvement partners” to local authority-run schools – something you appear to approve of, though evidently without quite knowing what you’re approving of.

By: Janet Downs

Janet Downs — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 09:54:08 +0000

Andy Burnham warned about giving unprecedented control to the Secretary of State for Education in the debate on the Education Bill:

“Today the Secretary of State is back with an even more audacious request. He is asking Members of the House of Commons to give him more than 50 new powers … It constitutes an unprecedented power grab from pupils, parents, professionals and the public, leaving them without essential safeguards in a free-for-all.… an unseemly rush to reform in which the normal processes of government are simply ditched. There will be no pilots, no evidence and no consultation. No time will be taken to listen to parents and children, consult teachers, and build the broad consensus in the country that should properly underpin any education reform.”
I think we should all be profoundly concerned.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm110208/debtext/110208-0002.htm

By: Sarah Dodds

Sarah Dodds — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 05:38:58 +0000

The more I find out, the more I realise that all of this is not just a tragedy for education, but for democracy. What is being advertised as increased power to the community is, in reality, increased centralisation to the state.

By: Rosemary

Rosemary — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 20:32:57 +0000

Sorry, grandstanding? Are people now being castigated for posing questions?

By: Francis Gilbert

Francis Gilbert — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 10:42:04 +0000

The legislation effectively concentrates power into the hands of the sponsoring trust, which will more or less run the school. The governing body are not “governors” at all, but will in practice rubber-stamp what the sponsors decide.

By: Fiona Millar

Fiona Millar — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 08:07:50 +0000

I think you will find the answer in the Academies Act which was passed last summer. They may be called free schools but in legal terms they are academies. The ‘sponsoring’ trust can appoint the majority of the governing body with minimal elected parent representation and no requirement for other categories of governors. The governors are accountable to the trust but in reality it is the trust that has the power and they should be accountable to the tax payer but are often able to hide behind ‘ commercial confidentiality ‘ as the funding agreements that govern the schools are essentially commercial contracts between the Secretary of State and the sponsor. It is interesting to see how some of these larger academy groups are now effectively operating like small local authorities now, keeping their schools on quite a tight leash and ‘controlling’ them in a way that a local authority would never dare to do!

By: Gerry Newton

Gerry Newton — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 18:34:08 +0000

Why don’t you just email them? If you were actually interested in the answers rather than this grandstanding, perhaps that might be more effective.