The Minister of Education Nicky Morgan has proposed turning all British schools into “academies,” akin to our charter schools. She has decided that removing all schools from local control will improve them.

 

The British National Union of Teachers has threatened a one-day strike to protest this step towards mass privatization. Morgan, however, says she won’t change course.

 

 

“The Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has told teachers she has no intention of backing down, warning another teachers’ union, the NASUWT, that there is no “reverse gear” on the proposed reforms.

 
“Mrs Morgan was heckled and faced shouts of “rubbish” from delegates during her speech arguing that the compulsory academy policy would raise standards.

 
“The National Union of Teachers is no stranger to challenging government education policies – and a call for strike action might also have been as predictable as bad weather over a bank holiday weekend.

 
“But on the issue of the government forcing all schools to become academies, regardless of the views of parents, the NUT clearly feels it is tapping into a much wider sense of unease.
The union’s leadership thinks the government has wrong-footed itself over this, antagonising grassroots Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, as well as its more traditional left-wing supporters.

 
“Town hall Tories are a much trickier target for the government than what they would see as conference hall Trots [Trotskyites]. And there are murmurings of concern about what academy chains would mean for village schools and faith schools.

 
“The element of compulsion could aggravate parents and there might be difficult questions about the merits of successful local schools being handed over to an unfamiliar academy chain….

 
“The NUT annual conference in Brighton has supported calls for a sustained campaign against compelling schools to be academies, including a ballot for a one-day strike.

 
“The union’s treasurer Ian Murch said it would see schools being “stolen” from local communities by “arrogant ministers”.

“He challenged the handing over of schools to academy chains, saying that it would be a step towards privatisation.

 

“Mr Murch said schools should be seen as a “public service and not a business opportunity”

 
“Hazel Danson from the union’s executive said the policy of making all schools academies would cause “absolute chaos” at a time when there were more pressing priorities such as teacher shortages.

 
“She said the plans would “remove parental voice as well as parental choice”.

 
“The NUT wants to build a wider coalition of opposition to the academy policy.

 
“A number of Conservative party representatives in local government have spoken out against the plans which would remove the role of local councils.”

 

Indeed, the plan faces opposition from more than the teachers’ union.

A group of officials from all three national parties–Conservative, Labor, and Liberal–spoke out against the plan in a letter to The a Observer.

 

“The Observer letter, signed by Conservative councillors as well as those from opposition parties, says:

 

“There is no evidence that academies perform better than council maintained schools.

 

“Where a school is failing, there is no question that action must be taken – but converting every school, regardless of performance, to an academy will not tackle those issues.”

 

It goes on: “Schools value the option to become academies – and the support they receive from their local councils to do so – where they believe this is in the best interests of their students and communities.

 

“Forcing the change upon every school goes against, in many cases, what parents and teachers want, and there will be a large financial implication for local authorities at a time when communities are already suffering the impact of significant budget cuts.”