Gove entrenches his reforms

In another sign of how the pace of Gove’s reforms is quickening, the education secretary has told local authorities that all new schools should be free schools or academies. This is a big step towards changing the default nature of the system from state-funded and state-run to state-funded but independent.
 
Local authorities will not be able to open a bureaucrat-controlled school unless they can satisfy the Secretary of State that there is no free school or academy provider willing to step in.
 
Gove has always argued that once free schools and academies become a significant part of the system it’ll be no more politically possible to abolish them than it would be to take sold-off council houses back into public ownership. This move puts Gove a step closer to achieving his ambition of lasting change.