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In Acton, the west London home of journalist and author Toby Young, the choice of secondary school is very limited. ÌýWith the eldest of his four children nearing the end of primary school, his solution to this problem has been to gather a group of concerned local parents to set up their own free school.ÌýTheir progress is tracked in the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Two programme Start your own School.

If I was at the point of sending my child to secondary school and could choose between a failing comprehensive and a free school along the proposed lines of the , then I would, almost certainly go with the free school. ÌýIf it were your child’s education at stake, wouldn’t you?

In principle, however, I am very unsure about the academies and free schools being set up to ‘solve’ an education system in crisis. ÌýI believe that every child, regardless of background, deserves an excellent education. Surely the local authorities rather than private enterprise should deal with lack of provision and failing schools? Couldn’t the academies and free schools budget, be better used to invest in state-funded building programmes and bringing in crisis management, in order to turn around existing schools in trouble?

Toby Young with his family

Free schools are essentially independent schools with state funding, and won’t be accountable in the same way as local authority schools. ÌýWhen problems occur, it won’t be democratically elected politicians who will be under scrutiny, so how will complaints against these schools be registered and dealt with? ÌýAnd if the existing free schools are anything to go by, it’s not going to be plain sailing.

The American model for free schools, the , has ostensibly led to more division in local communities rather than providing equal opportunities. ÌýThe is constantly cited as being exemplary, but there is data to suggest that attainment has dropped year on year since the free school scheme was widely adopted.ÌýÌýThis could be, amongst other reasons, due to .Ìý

Michael Gove wants poorer students to get a better education, and be .ÌýHowever it’s in no doubt those who David Cameron has dubbed the ‘sharp-elbowed’ middle classes, will find a way to , as they seem to have done with the more successful academies, leaving less resourceful families worse off. ÌýÌý

As John Humphrys beautifully illustrated in Unequal Opportunities,Ìýthere are state schools out there that are working for local communities; Ìýschools that were failing and have been turned around by inspirational heads and teaching staff. ÌýIf we want all children, not just our own, to have equal educational opportunities, there must be a better way to do this than half-hearted free school and academy schemes. ÌýIt will cost money, and involve real commitment on the part of the government – but are they willing to do it?

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