Gove gets personal with academy hype

Here's a quote from a recent speech by Gove:

" Last year, we announced that 200 of the worst performing primaries – those schools which have delivered the poorest results for the longest time – would be reopened as Academies with strong sponsors to drive improvement.

In fact, we managed to broker Academy solutions for 310 underperforming primaries. 140 of these new primary Academies are already open now, and the rest are well on their way.

In turning round those schools we faced fierce opposition. Not least in the London Borough of Haringey where an alliance including the NUT, other local unions, the Labour MP, the Socialist Workers Party and the SWP’s best-known supporter Michael Rosen, united to defend the right of children to be badly educated under council control. "

Quick thoughts:
1. Gove hasn't proved that being an academy is a certain way to 'improve standards'. Some academies fail.
2. The academy system is not a solution for the whole 'cohort' of a locality. They compete against each other (ie failure is written into the system);  it is clear that there is an unaccountable system of school exclusions;  it is not clear what the policy across a whole area is for special needs children.
3. I would be interested to know what side of 'legal' Gove's statement about me being a 'supporter' of the SWP is. I support some SWP campaigns and activities. I'm not a member.

Here's the speech in full:

http://www.conservatives.com/News/Speeches/2012/10/Michael_Gove_Politeia_Think_Tank_Speech.aspx