Why did the Tories lose interest in free schools?

Katharine Birbalsingh has been releasing videos of pupils at her school, Michaela Community, getting their GCSE results. They’re incredibly moving, all the more so because you wonder how many of these same kids – many from disadvantaged backgrounds – would have done if she had not set up that free school. These results are testimony, yes, to pupil effort. But when this teenager runs through his exams and lists each teacher who helped him get each ‘8’ and ‘9’, it’s almost a tear-jerker. It’s testimony to the teachers who go against the grain and set up schools – under much attack – to give private-school style rigour and discipline to kids whose families could never afford the £25,000-a-year. This shows what can be done to change lives if you drop the soft bigotry of low expectations.

Free schools have debunked the blame-the-parents mentality that has for decades sought to explain away the scandal of poor academic performance in poor areas.