Business Education Council, Selection In Education

Q: Why is the left so hung up about this? We already have selection. What we have now is selection by postcode. If you can afford the postcode then you get your kids into the best school. If you can't afford the postcode then your kids go to Chav Estate Comprehensive.

A:Possibly so, but the point being made is that selection effectively continues, with Bash Street Sec Mod becoming Bash Street Comprehensive. It's one of those problems with effectively no solution. If you're rich enough you can buy yourself out of a poor education system, if not, you're stuck with it. Most of the possible solutions (eg bussing in pupils from 'poorer' areas) would be expensive and disruptive to implement. 'Parental choice' in education is essentially a myth. typical black/white socialist fundy 'logic'..... with vouchers it is not 'a myth'...it is only 'a myth' while the interests of government and union cartel goes before the interests of the customers... you might as well argue that choice of car ownership is 'a myth' because not everyone can afford a roller.... being unable to afford a roller does not condemn you to crawl on your hands and knees... unless of course the government and unions control the car industry... So therefore it is currently a myth., which is what I said above. That doesn't mean to say that parental choice can *never* be attained, but there are serious barriers to be overcome. For example, the best school in an area (let's call it St Cake's) has a largely middle-class intake because it is in a leafy suburb. Parents whose children attend the poorer quality school a few miles away (let's call it 'Bash Street Comprehensive') which is in a grotty area surrounded by council estates, want to 'exercise choice' by sending their children to St Cake's. Problem: St Cake's can accommodate only a finite number of children, so if the parents of the Bash Street Comp get their children into St Cake's this will be at the expense of local parents whose children would otherwise secure places there. Whose freedom of choice takes priority? An analogy would be shopping vouchers which are usable in either a local grotty supermarket or a small branch Waitrose. Everyone will want to shop at Waitrose, but there wouldn't be enough room in the shop for all the prospective customers.

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