CLEGG, GOVE AND FREE SCHOOLS IN THE UK

A Private Sectarian System Can Never Be a Public System

9 September 2011

Australia lags behind even the UK in open enrolment policies. We allow sectarian schools to discriminate —at public expense—against children and teachers on the basis of religious affiliation and ability to pay. In the UK steps are being taken to force an open enrolment policy.

In England Nick Clegg, the deputy Prime Minister and a Liberal Democrat has recently won a victory over Michael Gove, the Education Secretary in relation to so-called ‘free’ schools.

According to the Guardian September 3, 2011 guardian.co.uk,

Nick Clegg has thwarted plans by the education secretary, Michael Gove to allow the new generation of "free schools" to make profits in the state sector after a massive ideological battle over the coalition's education policy. The deputy prime minister will on Monday trumpet his success as one of three key victories achieved over Gove, which he says will ensure that free schools have to operate for the "whole community" and not just for "the privileged few" or for profit.

A Gove supporter said: "Gove has never had an ideological issue with profit in schools, whereas Clegg is ruling it out for ideological reasons."

Clegg has

· amended the admissions code from 2013 to allow free schools and academies to give priority to pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds (those on free school meals).

· won a guarantee from Gove that all of the free schools set up in the next wave will either be in deprived areas or areas in need of more places, and

· The more disadvantaged children the school takes, the more money it gets.

DOGS notes that the ‘Clegg’ solution has surfaced in some of the Gonski Funding Review literature. The answer to inequities however does not involve charity, namely forcing disadvantaged children on private institutions. The answer lies in sole public funding for a genuine public system open to all children. Systems of education that discriminate against children should not receive public money.

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