64 | Big Picture
with many new independent schools using, for example,
converted houses as schools. In addition, for-profit `chains' of
schools, permitted under the regulations, are able to pool
resources to meet the costs of opening new schools in the chain
and have thus made it easier to finance the costs of entry.
Fourthly, municipalities generally fail in appeals against the
creation of new independent schools. For example, in 2000, of 138
applications for new primary/lower secondary schools that were
not withdrawn, only two were rejected as a result of local
authority concerns.
PROSPECTS FOR CHANGE IN THE UK
So where does this leave the UK? The Prime Minister has long
recognised the positive impact of new entrants on productivity,
and not only in the private sector. As Chancellor of the
Exchequer, back in 2002, referring to the then forthcoming
Comprehensive Spending Review, he said:
"In the spending review we will reinforce this independence by
ensuring our competition authorities have additional resources and
new expertise so that the competitive environment is as open, fair
and conducive to new entrants as it can be � and empowering them
to look not only at barriers to productivity growth in the private
sector but in the public sector too, including anti-competitive
effects of current and new regulations."25
The Government has recently presided over a huge expansion
of new entrants in the state education system that enjoy greater
freedoms than state schools, for example over curriculum and
teachers' pay and conditions. There are 83 Academies, up from 46
in 2007, with an extra 51 to open this year and a further 80 in
2009. The former Schools Minister, Lord Adonis, also proposed
an expansion of the Academies beyond the Government's target
of 400.26
Unfortunately, the Government has
also made a number of moves in the
opposite direction. A number of key
Academy freedoms, including over
curriculum, have been scaled back or
abolished,27
while the forthcoming rise in
the school leaving age to 18 represents a
dramatic expansion in the role of the
state in British education.
It's worth repeating the statistic cited
above that a fifth of pupils fail to get
their first choice of secondary school28
� a
telling result of the lack of education
reform in the UK.
25
Gordon Brown Mansion House speech, 27 June 2002 http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2002/jun/27/economy.uk
26
Department for Children, Schools and Families, `Schools and Pupils in England: January 2007 (Final)', September 2007, Table 1; The Times, 24 August 2008
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article4597172.ece
27
Bosanquet, N. et al, `Retreat from Reform � The initial policy decisions of the new Government', Reform, July 2007
28
The Guardian, 4 March 2008 http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/mar/04/schools.publicschools
In Britain,
similar reforms
could yield even
greater results
than in Sweden

Page 1Page 2Page 3Page 4Page 5Page 6Page 7Page 8Page 9Page 10Page 11Page 12Page 13Page 14Page 15Page 16Page 17Page 18Page 19Page 20Page 21Page 22Page 23Page 24Page 25Page 26Page 27Page 28Page 29Page 30Page 31Page 32Page 33Page 34Page 35Page 36Page 37Page 38Page 39Page 40Page 41Page 42Page 43Page 44Page 45Page 46Page 47Page 48Page 49Page 50Page 51Page 52Page 53Page 54Page 55Page 56Page 57Page 58Page 59Page 60Page 61Page 62Page 63Page 64Page 65Page 66Page 67Page 68Page 69Page 70Page 71Page 72Page 73Page 74Page 75Page 76Page 77Page 78Page 79Page 80 Produced by PageSuite