Useful bedfellows in the fight against Academies‏

With over a 1000 schools expressing an interest in Academy status (notwithstanding Government spin as the ‘1000’ expressions of interest was simply made up of those who completed an email to register for more information) the issue of Academies has sparked undoubted interest; particularly as the fools gold of supposed savings from the LEA is attracting some egotistical head teachers into believing that they could save the world if it wasn’t for the cost of the LEA.
http://www.antiacademies.org.uk/

A surprising ally in the fight against Academies may come from Church Schools. The land and buildings for church schools tend to be split in ownership between the church diocese and the local authority so there is the prospect that for the churches they lose assets with no financial gain. More importantly in church schools the governing board is populated with foundation governors elected to the board to represent the views of the church (whichever Church that may be) and herein lies the real rub. If a school opts to become an Academy then the trust board changes and the school becomes a charity. Any directional ethos over a school is lost. A Roman Catholic School could become secular or a multiple faith school for example, as power is lost to the new board of Trustees. This is a risky position and not one that church schools appear willing to take. The church diocese could therefore whip their foundation governors to vote against Academy status.

It is a similar argument to that of the left. If we allow schools to become Academies the longer term interest of the whole community are lost to the vested interest of one head teacher and a new board of trustees at a snapshot in time. Communities change over time. That is why the constancy of state provision and democratic governance through councils is essential. There is risk of long term damage to education with the prospect of selection as the default option, leaving the poorest communities behind with less LEA support as economies of scale are lost.

There is now a school of thought emerging that the 22 June budget will slash BSF funding and even back date the decision to January 2010 – its cheaper to buy out the contractors than go ahead with the new-build or refurbishment programmes. Conveniently there could then be an offering that if a school becomes an Academy they could borrow themselves and use the ‘savings’ from the LEA contribution to repay back debt from capital works. And yes that would be nothing short of a disgraceful bribe but those schools now in the fourth wave of BSF with little prospect of getting classrooms up to standard may be sorely tempted.

Within the North West there is a higher proportion of Church schools (particularly Catholic schools from its Irish heritage) so it would certainly be worth exploring common ground to fight off Academies. Watch this space.

Anna Rose