CHOICE in education is an inflammatory issue, and Children Now (Feb 8) reports that several city academy schools, which are part-funded by private sponsors, have “cut deals” with ministers that allow them to be more prescriptive.
Funding agreements for 27 city academies show that two academies will be able to exclude children more easily, as they do not have to justify exclusions to an independent appeals panel, as is the norm. A third academy will teach from a curriculum that has “heavy religious input”, and at another, parents do not have the right to withdraw children from religious assembly.
All this adds up to fewer rights for families, says David Wolfe, a barrister at Matrix Chambers in London. “The funding agreements are materially different because the Secretary of State has cut deals with individual sponsors,” he says. These agreements, he says, could have been drawn up differently. “The consequence of not doing so is diminished rights for children and parents.”