Cameron’s proposal for Swedish style school reform may not win him the next election, but if he implements it properly it will win him a second term. His speech today does what I have long hoped for: put a Swedish-style supply side revolution at the heart of Tory policy.
The new schools cannot be his only proposal, hence plans for streaming by ability, reading age etc. While this will soak up today’s media attention it will be a small part of the Tory education reform now in prospect.
It is hard for Britain to imagine a system where pupils choose schools and not vice versa, which is why Cameron will have problems getting this message across. Even Sweden had no idea how effective the 1993 schools proposal would be. Ministers offered a fixed amount per pupil to new schools that passed basic tests, and that was it.
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