On Fri, 11 Nov 2005 00:39:04 +0000 (GMT), John Cartmell
wrote:

In article , Andy Hall
wrote:
On Thu, 10 Nov 2005 20:07:22 +0000 (GMT), John Cartmell
wrote:

In article , Andy Hall
wrote:
But many schools would be destroyed as a result.

This is a pessimistic view.

It's the downside of your proposal. It's rather a large and expensive
downside - and you expect the taxpayer and the individuals hit by it to
pay the cost whilst you and your mates pick up all those extra profits
going into private schools.

You're still missing the point and are using emotive arguments. I haven't
said anything about profits or extra profits, only the separation of
funding from delivery.

I know full well what you are saying. I'm just filling in the blanks that you
are deliberately leaving that way - like people who refer to 'the grammar
school system' pretending that secondary modern schools didn't exist as a
consequence.
You're lying like a good PR to sell an idea and I'm ****ing you off by
reminding everyone of the pitfalls.

Not really. I'm not ****ed off in the least. I haven't pretended
that secondary modern schools didn't exist - in fact I gave an
illustration of people who I know who went to them, were pretty
pleased with the outcome and went on to be very successful in their
chosen careers.

I certainly didn't say that all schools would be identical and equal
under a changed arrangement. In fact they wouldn't be. Having some
schools that focus more on academic learning, others on practical
skills etc. etc. while continuing to teach core numeracy and literacy
skills is eminently sensible. It allows greater concentration of
investment in staff and equipment for given subject areas and
achievement of excellence in them because the amount of duplication is
reduced.

It's remarkably inconsistent of you on the one hand to say that it is
unnacceptable for organisations like Tesco, Microsoft and Sky to have
large market shares and dominant positions, while on the other saying
that it is OK for the state to do the same with education and
healthcare.

--

..andy