Playing the education lottery
On today's show we'll be looking at the use of lotteries to .
The government seemed keen on them two years ago when it supported their use but yesterday said they were "unfair", "destabilising" and should only be used as a "last resort".
It's hard to see this as other than a U-turn, perhaps because it was so most concerned about their children's education.
Lotteries were introduced in an attempt to break the middle-class stranglehold on the best state schools (among the top 100 comprehensives in England, only 4% of pupils qualify for free school meals, a pretty good indicator of poverty).
"Random allocation" was meant to make the best state schools more comprehensive by stopping the intake being dominated to those whose parents could afford to buy houses nearby the best schools.
The move was unpopular among parents most inclined to vote and did produce anomalies.
The Conservatives have already pledged to scrap lotteries saying that a child's future should not be decided on the "roll of the dice".
We will be joined by Shadow Education Minister .
Also today, the Scottish government announces proposals to deal with , especially among youngsters, and we hope to be live with the Scottish Health Minister from Holyrood.
We'll be . ?
The Daily Politics is about to, so tune in for that. Throughout the programme we'll have Labour's former head of Communications, .
That's live on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ2 from midday and later on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ iPlayer.
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