"Many exciting new developments are happening in education at the moment. We are finally breaking the grip that revolutionary communists have had over your children and in their place bringing in the business community with their long record of superb management of the British and world economy. Schools can now choose to be run by anyone who knows how to make a profit. What we do is shovel tax-payers' money towards these companies up to and beyond a level where they can provide their share-holders with juicy dividends.
People have said to me, but surely, you believe in socially agreed and administered norms to guide us in how we run schools? Indeed, we have spent the last hundred years and more developing the systems of inspection, government commissions, exams, league tables, school management, governors to run education. Well, I'm getting rid of all this. From now on, there is only one measure of education: money. Of course, we will carry on with exams and testing and all that but the purpose of all this is to use all results and positionings on league tables and the rest as a form of market research and measurement of competitiveness.
In the past, I know that some people have wondered if it's the job of education to serve business (or capitalism as some would call it). I don't think we need to ask that question any more. Under this new dispensation: education doesn't serve capitalism. It IS capitalism.
Rejoice!"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jan/28/state-schools-private-sector-revolution
