David Cameron has tweeted

“My pledge to create 500 free schools in next 5 years will give more parents the security of knowing their child is getting a great education”

This is really stupid. We know that free schools will go to areas where parents are well organised and affluent, not to areas where schools are underfunded, where it is difficult to recruit good teachers and where a high proportion of school leavers will have limited grasp of basic skills, and will probably be unemployable.

This is a country with vacancies for well paid work for people who have been well educated and who can make a good contribution to the wealth of the country. Immigrants are coming in hundreds of thousands to fill those vacancies. While we have millions, yes millions, of young people who have been failed by our emasculated education system who cannot find work.

Our education policy needs to be rethought, and we need to develop policies to support all our children. Creating free schools will not do this, nor will the suggestion that the Headteachers of failing schools should be replaced. Failing schools need support, not the sacking of teachers and headteachers to be replaced by ?????. Where will these new teachers and headteachers come from?

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