DESPERATE BRITISH SOCIALISTS GOING PRIVATE

Parents' groups will receive public money to run their own schools under plans being drawn up by Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary. Ms Kelly told local government leaders yesterday that she intended to end their dominance of state education by inviting other groups to open and run schools. A White Paper this autumn will include radical proposals to replace failing schools with ones run by parents, companies or charities.

Ms Kelly also made clear that 1,000 schools considered to be "coasting" would face pressure to respond to demands for better standards.

Her proposals indicated an important extension of private sector involvement in state education, despite growing hostility from teachers' unions towards plans to open 200 academies by 2010. Academies are sponsored and controlled by businesses and other private organisations, but funded by the Government.

Ms Kelly told a Local Government Association conference in London that she planned to expand parental choice. "We need to harness all the energy and skill we can in the provision of state education so that we can raise standards for every pupil," she said. "I am interested in seeing how we can work with a variety of potential not-for-profit organisations - educational charities, faith and parents' groups, perhaps mutual organisations - in order to drive the next phase of reform."

The role of councils would be as "the commissioner rather than the provider" of education, supporting parents in relations with schools. "Councils don't add value through micro-managing heads, employing the teachers or owning the bricks and the land that schools sit on," she said. "But they can add significant value through the new commissioning role. This will see councils with a single-minded focus on listening and responding to the views of parents and pupils."

The proposals are in line with Labour's manifesto, which promised parents more power. It said: "Where new educational providers can help boost standards and opportunities in a locality, we will welcome them subject to parental demand, fair funding and fair admissions."

Ms Kelly said that coasting schools were doing too little to improve. She confirmed that she would halve the time for failing schools to improve to 12 months. Those judged to have made inadequate progress would be closed or replaced. "We cannot ask children to be patient while their school gets a second, third or fourth chance to improve," she said.

Ms Kelly's radical proposals indicate Tony Blair's determination to accelerate the pace of education reform in his final term and could end 60 years of local government control of education, which has seen the growth of town hall empires resistant to reform. The aim is to transfer power from bureaucrats to parents, to force schools to respond more rapidly, and to overturn the Labour orthodoxy that councils should control education.

David Bell, the head of Ofsted, backed the plan. But unions accused Ms Kelly of seeking to speed up school closures to meet the target for opening academies. Steve Sinnott, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "The suspicion remains that there is a secret agenda to achieve the Government's target on academies."

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Teaching of Creationism Is Endorsed in New Survey

An excellent argument for school choice, it seems to me

In a finding that is likely to intensify the debate over what to teach students about the origins of life, a poll released yesterday found that nearly two-thirds of Americans say that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public schools. The poll found that 42 percent of respondents held strict creationist views, agreeing that "living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time."

In contrast, 48 percent said they believed that humans had evolved over time. But of those, 18 percent said that evolution was "guided by a supreme being," and 26 percent said that evolution occurred through natural selection. In all, 64 percent said they were open to the idea of teaching creationism in addition to evolution, while 38 percent favored replacing evolution with creationism.

The poll was conducted July 7-17 by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. The questions about evolution were asked of 2,000 people. The margin of error was 2.5 percentage points.

John C. Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum, said he was surprised to see that teaching both evolution and creationism was favored not only by conservative Christians, but also by majorities of secular respondents, liberal Democrats and those who accept the theory of natural selection. Mr. Green called it a reflection of "American pragmatism." "It's like they're saying, 'Some people see it this way, some see it that way, so just teach it all and let the kids figure it out.' It seems like a nice compromise, but it infuriates both the creationists and the scientists," said Mr. Green, who is also a professor at the University of Akron in Ohio.

Eugenie C. Scott, the director of the National Center for Science Education and a prominent defender of evolution, said the findings were not surprising because "Americans react very positively to the fairness or equal time kind of argument." "In fact, it's the strongest thing that creationists have got going for them because their science is dismal," Ms. Scott said. "But they do have American culture on their side."

This year, the National Center for Science Education has tracked 70 new controversies over evolution in 26 states, some in school districts, others in the state legislatures. President Bush joined the debate on Aug. 2, telling reporters that both evolution and the theory of intelligent design should be taught in schools "so people can understand what the debate is about." Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the Republican leader, took the same position a few weeks later.

Intelligent design, a descendant of creationism, is the belief that life is so intricate that only a supreme being could have designed it.

The poll showed 41 percent of respondents wanted parents to have the primary say over how evolution is taught, compared with 28 percent who said teachers and scientists should decide and 21 percent who said school boards should. Asked whether they believed creationism should be taught instead of evolution, 38 percent were in favor, and 49 percent were opposed. More of those who believe in creationism said they were "very certain" of their views (63 percent), compared with those who believe in evolution (32 percent).

More here

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

The NEA and similar unions worldwide believe that children should be thoroughly indoctrinated with Green/Left, feminist/homosexual ideology but the "3 R's" are something that kids should just be allowed to "discover"

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