In the wake of the crashing, burning, and burial of the previous UK Politics Thread, for reasons I don’t think need be stated, I thought a better way of discussing the upcoming election would be to have a number of threads, each correspondence to a particular policy field.
That way, there is less chance of derailment by other subjects, although no doubt there’ll be overlap.
To start, I thought education policy could be an appropriate one. If there’s another policy field other fellow UK Dopers feel deserves discussing, then I suggest creating one following the title template of this thread.
I’ve checked with Mod Jonathan Chance on this, who has given it his endorsement.
So, education. First thing that addressed me this morning on the Beeb was the Tories’ proposal to create 500 additional free schools in England over the next few years.
Good idea? Bad idea? I am unsure, as I have heard concerns over the risk of them being captured by crank interests, but is there any data insisting they are on the whole more effective than the existing system of comprehensives? How about where they are placed - do they favour richer over poorer families?
Personally I think it’s an egregiously bad idea because I disagree with stealth privatisation of our education system on principle, along with the social division that free schools will entrench, if they are allowed to develop.
I disagree with the concern over crank interests co-opting the free schools idea - these people are actually doing us all a huge favour in discrediting free schools. Bottom line is that there will always be marginal groups who want to opt out of mainstream education - usually due to abject cabbagery on behalf of their parents. It’s sad for the children, but it’s a fact of life and I don’t see what we can or even should do about it. So allowing these types to run a school, with very predictable results, does at least have the benefit of painting the whole idea a nice shade of shite.
The worry from my POV is that the cranks are limited in number and can only fail once, really. Lurking behind them, like a giant submerged turd dimly glimpsed beneath the waters, are the ‘entrepreneurial’ classes who will do a superficially decent job of running a school (in the short term, obviously).
As far as the election goes it seems like one of those ideological issues that divides voters naturally along party lines, so it’s safe for both main parties to take a big position for and against. Can’t see swing voters caring too much about free schools, because if they did, they wouldn’t be swing voters (IMHO).
Some amount of capital to be made for Tristram Hunt on the issue - although it’s cow’s-arse-with-a-banjo stuff. Still, not too many of them around for the labour party so he should be wading in at every opportunity.
Well, I had to look it up as it’s not really featured recentlyl: this is Tristram Hunt’s 2014 conference speech. I’ve extracted the policy bits and bolded anything specific:
Speaking as a working parent, I thrill to the idea of schools doing full-day care. Speaking as a middle-class parent, I’d happily pay for it. The model of school finishing at half-two/three (particularly primary school) just doesn’t fit with the way people work - or want to work.
More hours of free child-care pre-school would be nice, but I’d be happy to be means-tested out of it personally. However, from a “making work pay” perspective, I think this is exactly the kind of support government should be giving.
The London Challenge was phenomenally successful (big pdf) - educational results from London have turned right around. It did involve academies, but also a lot of support for LEA schools and the wider governance system. It does seem to be quite resource intensive, so I’d be interested in seeing the costings around it - but that might be better saved for the economic and fiscal policy thread which is surely coming.
Similarly, I don’t have any in principal objection to teachers and support staff being paid more. With regards to teachers, it depends a lot on how they determine who is worthy of more pay, whether the mandatory training discussed is likely to be effective or whether it becomes an empty target-hitting exercise.
Broadly, (and unsurprisingly to me) I’m more in favour of the above than in the gimmicky 500 more free schools “let’s throw 20,000 kids at the wall and see what sticks” approach.
Most idiotic policy idea of the entire GE campaign goes to UKIP, who apparently will ban children of immigrants to the UK from attending state schools for at least five years.
