Developments in Local Services

Abstract

One must seek out the opposite of Wordsworth’s euphemism on poetry — ‘emotion recollected in tranquillity’ — to apostrophise education in local government. Perhaps ‘emotion negotiated in hostility’ would fit the bill, at least as a passing truth. Certainly the educational arena has its fair share of political footballs, and it is yet too early to see how the latest version of the uneasy, unholy balance between central and local administration — a Conservative Government and local education authorities (LEAs) considerably more in Labour hands than hitherto — will cope with this sporting life. The public subsidy of children attending independent schools (the Conservative Government promised an ‘Assisted Places Scheme’ costing £50 millions, which may, eventually, have a much lower price tag, in means-tested grants to that end) and the perseverance by some authorities with some measure of selection at eleven-plus is evidence of this. Interestingly, both these issues are claimed by Conservative politicians to be related to their views on parental choice and high academic standards, for such modes, in their opinion, broaden opportunities and preserve traditional values of scholarship at one and the same time. For their part, and predictably, Labour politicians argue that the Conservative line confuses choice with privilege, and that a properly manned comprehensive system, uninhibited by any such creaming-off process would and does offer a generally sound level of achievement. Another carefully negotiated educational bargain, between LEA and Church provision, has changed its character with time and may need reappraisal.