Tory education plans were undermined this week when they were attacked, not just by Ed Balls and the NUT, but also by the leaders of two Conservative county councils.
Paul Carter, leader of Kent County Council, warned his party to guard against “destructive” rather than “constructive” competition and said that providing funds for parents to start their own schools would threaten state school budgets. David Kirk, responsible for schools in Hampshire, said local authorities were in a better position to improve local schools than parents.
This public criticism – in the middle of an election campaign – by two senior Tories calls into question council confidence in controversial plans by Shadow Education Secretary Michael Gove to let parents set up their own schools with public money. Mr Gove has the ear of David Cameron, but the criticism is said to have unsettled him. Kent’s grammar schools are rated among the best schools in the country and the Tory leader is reluctant to upset voters.
Schools Secretary Ed Balls was quick to join the chorus of criticism. He challenged the Tories to say where the money would come from to pay for their free schools. He said: “These leading Conservative councillors, with real experience of education, have let the cat out of the bag and confirmed what we, and educational experts, have been saying all along. The only way David Cameron and Michael Gove’s free market schools can work is, as the councillors say, by making deep and immediate cuts to schools that children are already attending.”
Christine Blower, general secretary of the NUT, said: “The introduction of free schools investment will create chaos at local level.”
After consultation with Conservative HQ, Mr Carter, who runs the biggest education authority in England with almost 600 schools, “clarified” his remarks, saying: “I am 100 per cent behind Michael Gove’s plans.”
Eamonn Butler of the Adam Smith Institute wondered if Mr Carter’s criticism was “a kick in the teeth for Michael Gove” – but then invoked the ghost of Margaret Thatcher and said it was time “to sideline local education authorities”.
