Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Good Idea, Bad Idea.

The new Conservative schools policy combines a very good idea with a very stupid one.
Michael Gove, the shadow schools secretary, has said that a Conservative Government would close down the worst-performing schools in England.
The good part is that he recognises that schools exist for the benefit of their pupils, there should be no sentimentality about the disappearance of schools that aren't very good.

The bad part is that he is taking it upon central government to decide which schools close down despite the enormous distance between a school and the Schools Secretary. Trying to micromanage services from Whitehall inevitably leads to government by target setting. It also runs in complete contrast to the proposals of David Cameron to devolve more power down to local government through elected mayors.

2 comments:

Mark Wadsworth said...

Good point. Most of their announcements have a mix of one (genuinely) good idea to one or two shit ideas.

James Higham said...

Trying to micromanage services from Whitehall inevitably leads to government by target setting.

Yes it does and it's a sad commentary that it can't be done at local level. However, to target set will make them as bad as Labour.