The message
from John Cartmell contains these words:

The milk snatcher could probably be blamed for many of our
current ills
but not that. The legislation that forced grammar schools to
merge with
secondary moderns or go private was passed in 1976 and MT was totally
opposed to it.

Most of it was done by Margaret Thatcher. Have you checked the numbers?

You mean she personally required education authorities to go
comprehensive?

I mean more schools went comprehensive under her watch than anyone
else. Ceck
the numbers.

That may or may not have been the case but the responsibility for the
change rests squarely on the shoulders of the loony left and the
significant date is not when they went comprehensive but the date the
decision was made to comply with the law and take them comprehensive.

As there are (or were until recently) a few real grammar schools left in
the state sector I suspect that the legislation that gave parents the vote
on whether schools switch was her attempt to limit the damage when
she came
to power in 1979.

As my children suffered under the system and I have taught in one of
the local
grammar schools I do know about it. My authority is one that has what you
would call 'real' grammar schools but that's not quite true as it
doesn't have
'real' secondary modern schools; the worst aspects of the grammar/sec mod
system have been modified by putting more money into the 'high schools'.
It's still not a solution but is nowhere near as bad as the old version -
except for the problems of the 11-plus examination.

Selection on the grounds of intelligence makes a good deal more sense
than the current system of specialist schools where they can have
selection for just about any ability apart from intelligence.

That old system if more a figment of your imagination than the reality.
ISTR that earlier in this thread you claimed that grammar schools got
twice as much money as secondary moderns (or even more absurdly the vast
bulk of the money).

Trying to reverse the changes already made, or even those
in progress would have been too daunting even for her.

More likely she wasn't interested.

That's just your prejudices surfacing again.


--
Roger Chapman