more on the education reforms

More outrage and bewilderment about the education reforms to be found...

here [The Militant Pine Martin]
"If it is true that education will remain free, the much-vaunted parental choice will only apply to those who are best placed to take advantage of the new system through their background, educational level, postcode, inclination and ability to do so. ... [T]hose that will benefit will be those that already have the greatest ability to make the system work for them, and therefore the children who have the least need of the State’s help. Children born into poorly educated or simply poor backgrounds or areas are being abandoned. The State is giving up trying to offer social promotion through education, it’s taking away the opportunity to rise purely on one’s own merits, through one’s own work, assisted by the State. In fact, it’s giving up on trying to help those who can’t help themselves."

here [Councillor Bob Piper]
"Oh, well done Ms. Kelly. I'll start getting the local parents in my Ward to demand new schools. By the way... does this mean they will automatically get one? More crackpot ideas and spin from our New Labour colleagues."

here [Talk Politics]
"...I'm rather too tired to go for mcuh more in the way of spittle-flecked invective, deserved as it is by the government's education white paper other than to note that I would have rather in not be printed in its glossy format but on something rather softer and more absorbant - at least then I could find a use for it."

and here [Rhetorically Speaking]
"Given the desirable situation is for every school to be a good school, we're left wondering exactly what criteria will be used to exercise 'choice'; it's inferred that this might mean 'specialist' schools or religious schools, but for a document stating a new principal for education it's still left tremendously unclear. There's a curious blend of comprehensive values ("excellence for all") - and free marketeering ("individual choice for all") that has yet to be resolved in any coherent fashion."

All found via B4L and Talk Politics - thanks.