The standard of debate on this thread is very high compared with Wondir and Tiscali. Did anyone else actuallyr ead Mr Willett's speech? He mentioned that the problem with vouchers is that there are not enough schools. He likened it to giving everyone a free rail ticket and then not increasing the number of trains. The most exciting thing about his speech was almost entirely invisible: we need far more schools. The whole point of Charter Schools is that anyone can start them up if they are a teacher. This means that lots more small schools will spring up. Pretty soon, parents will see where their children will fit in. they will be enormously varied in size, intake, attitude, religion, race etc etc. Grammar Schools can easily be set up too, if you can find the teachers who will do it. Me, I've had enough of very clever children. Perhaps if Mr Willetts had been a little less clever, he might have got across some of the excitement which he ought to have generated.

The standard of debate on this thread is very high compared with Wondir and Tiscali. Did anyone else actuallyr ead Mr Willett's speech? He mentioned that the problem with vouchers is that there are not enough schools. He likened it to giving everyone a free rail ticket and then not increasing the number of trains. The most exciting thing about his speech was almost entirely invisible: we need far more schools. The whole point of Charter Schools is that anyone can start them up if they are a teacher. This means that lots more small schools will spring up. Pretty soon, parents will see where their children will fit in. they will be enormously varied in size, intake, attitude, religion, race etc etc. Grammar Schools can easily be set up too, if you can find the teachers who will do it. Me, I've had enough of very clever children. Perhaps if Mr Willetts had been a little less clever, he might have got across some of the excitement which he ought to have generated.

Brilliant idea. Frank Field is just the man with a lifetime of caring, intelligent scrutiny of this very difficult problem.