It beggars belief that when everything in education is to be cut Michael Gove has the temerity to announce an exemption: the profit his friends may make from exploiting the state may increase — this time by running schools.
I am appalled.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Michael Gove is a US-style neo-con who wants to privatise the English education system by stealth. It’s as simple as that. I’d have more respect for him if he was open about saying this was his objective but of course there’d be a national outrage so he does it by stealth, creating thousands of academies which are allowed to set their own admissions policies and eventually, down the line, will inevitably be allowed to charge fees to “save money”.
The only consolation is that the programme will be so disastrous to many kids’ chances of getting a decent education that coalition education policy will be one of the easiest targets at the next election you’ll ever see. Some of these Lib-Con politicians are digging their own holes as fast as they can and they’ll just keep on doing it – the gift that keeps on giving.
Please explain why this is any more appalling that the privately owned general practice partnerships that contract with the NHS?
I don’t have any ideological objection to anybody trying to make a profit in a regulated business, provided the necessary standards are maintained. They might invest more in the buildings to reduce the heating bills or they might use the shools assets to generate further income outside school hours. There are already many private tutors especially music tutors and speech therapists who are effectively self-employed traders. There are also many small publishers who sell materials to schools and make handsome profits from their entrepreneurialism.
However, I think it is highly unlikely that any company trading with a view to a profit would be able to compete with other education providers who do not seek to trade at a profit. The number of private sector universities (only 1 in the UK the last time I looked) indicate that the business model doesn’t really work.
@Alex
You really don’t understand profit as an economic concept do you Alex?
Now it may be I have the advantage of being married to a GP (who thoroughly dislikes the current system – and who confidently expects it not to last) but the reality is that the so called “profit” you refer to is labour – a payment for being in attendance – for very long hours. The element realting to enterprise might be 0.1%
That would be like saying the head’s pay was profit
Which of course it isn’t
Gove is talking about allowing profit – economic profit
I suggest you mug up on what he means
And why therefore he is wrong to contemplate it – unless it is his intent to reduce the quality of education in the UK to benefit his friends
@Richard Murphy
“You really don’t understand profit as an economic concept do you Alex?”
Clearly more than you. GPs are paid according to the terms of their NHS contracts, but the amount that they take home depends on the profits of the partnership in which they operate, which will depend in part on how efficient their practice is: how much they pay for their building, how well they manage their mnaintenance contracts and how efficiently they operate their surgeries given their fixed costs. All of which is economic profit.
As I said, I have no objection to somebody running schools more efficiently (many schools and universities already try to earn extra revenue from their assets), but I don’t think there is much of a profit to be made when there are so many schools operating on a not-for-profit basis.