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Milburn speaks
- 28 Jan 2007 16:45
A couple of weeks ago I commented that Alan Milburn, the former Health Secretary, might be a decent outside bet to succeed Tony Blair as Prime Minister. In today's Sunday Times, 28 January, he's written an article about a proposed education plan to sort out the most failing schools. In a nutshell, he want's to offer the parents of children at the 88 schools who have been in special measures for more than 12 months, an education 'voucher' worth 150% of the cost of that the education in the failing school. Parent's then can direct their child to an alternative, more successful school, even if that means the successful school has to go above it's admission targets. The idea is to make the failing school buck up it's ideas, and put more choice into the system for parents.
Read the article here: Times Online
Sounds like a plausible idea to me, certainly quite New Labour and very Tony Blair, and equally, it sounds like something Gordon Brown - and a fair number of Labour backbenchers - would hate. If it helps get kids out of failing schools, and raise standards in those schools though, it's worth a look.
Tim SculthorpeDeputy Chief Editor
Tim Sculthorpe is deputy chief editor working hard to raise the bar here at the waterfront.
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