It was brave of the Secretary of State for Education to stand up and confront the teachers; a challenge several of her predecessors funked. Unfortunately what she had to say betrayed a good deal of ignorance and was very disappointing. There is something fundamentally wrong with the idea that billions of public money be handed to semi-independent schools to do more or less as they like with no organised supervision to which the public has access, not as a specialist niche arrangement in exceptional circumstances, but for the whole state system. As Corbyn said yesterday it is a form of asset stripping.
There is no mandate for it. It was not in the Tory manifesto and it is worth reminding their government that while they have a majority they won it on their lowest winning total of votes since long before WWII. There is trouble ahead. This policy will not stand.
