Publications
A liberal education policy
| Author: | Julian Astle |
| Date of Publication: | December 2007 |
This paper pulls together four CentreForum papers on education policy
Ranging across pre-school, primary, secondary and tertiary education, the paper sets out a coherent vision of a liberal education policy and sets out the key policy challenges ahead.
Commenting, Julian Astle said:
"A liberal education policy is one which harnesses the power of individual and community activism to the cause of social justice. This means taking the existing centrally planned, bureaucratically controlled system and turning it on its head, so that parental choice rather than ministerial diktat becomes the driver of policy. The publication this week of the government's latest 'ten year plan for children' shows just how wedded it is to the old 'top-down' approach to service delivery.
"But if we are to liberalise the supply side to give parents real power and real choice, as both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are promising, we will need also to arrive at a more progressive funding settlement to ensure that it isn't just the most affluent and active parents who benefit. If we are to do this, we must be prepared to shift government subsidy from those who need it the least, such as wealthy graduates, to those who need it the most, such as young children from the poorest families. For it is in these early years that the real battle to expand educational opportunity will have to be fought"