New Right & educational policies

New Right

They believe in the marketisation of education because it encourages competition, proving that the system is meritocratic, however, they believe some people are naturally more talented than others.
Yet they believe that the education system is failing to include local needs & takes a 'one size fits all' approach, if they don't listen to their 'consumers' (parents, public, employers) they waste money or get poor results, leading to lower standards of achievement for pupils, a less qualified workforce & less prosperous economy.
Chubb & Moe; the introduction of a market system in education would force schools to become more responsive of parent's wishes (consumer choice), schools with have to improve in order to attract costumers. Private schools are succesful because they use this system, pupils from low-income families do 5% better in private schools.
Ball; promoting academies & free schools lead to increased fragmentation (inequality) & centralisation (complete gov. control) over education.
The coalition gov. introduced free school meals & pupil premium to help reduce inequality but then EMA'S, Sure Start was cut & tuition fees brought up, reducing opportunites for w/c pupils.

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Pupil Premium - Encourages the best schools to attract pupils from the poorest homes, and to provide extra money to help improve the education of the most disadvantaged. Reduced inqeuality because it aimed to eliminate material deprivation in school resources.
Parentocracy - David; the parents get more choice in the schools they send their kids to because of league tables & OFSTED reports.
Gerwitz; increased parental choice leads to priviliged-skilled choosers (often m/c, educated) & disconnected local choosers (w/c, lack cultural capital).
Ball; marketisation policies increase class inequalities by widening gap between schools.
Cream-skimming - Bartlett; good schools are more selective & choose their own customers, often middle-class high achieving pupils.
The funding formula - Rewards popular schools that attract more students with more money, to expand & improve further. It can create great inequality as those that don't attract students, often in poorer areas go out of business.
Target setting may lead to increased equality because schools will focus on all students to achieve better results, however streaming, A-C economy & educational triage often leaves disadvantaged students behind.
Free schools give parents the opportunity to ammend school policy, however as Allen; notes they are selective, which increases inequality.

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Privatisation - Means the transfer of industries or services previously owned by the state to ownership by private businesses, who run them to make profit.
Academies, school transport, examination bodies, school services, e.g, supply teachers, school meals, are results of privatisation.
Profit-motive may encourage private companies to improve 'failing' schools in areas where education is of poor quality, to make money by attracting more students.
There is more choice for parents with the range of school providers, doesn't follow 'one size fits all' approach that New Right criticise.
Criticisms - Making money may override the needs of children, excluding the hardest to reach children because they don't make profit.
Money can become drained from the education system, private providers may not reinvest profits into education & the companies go out of business, leaving children without schools.
Marxism - They are using education as an excuse to drive up private profits, reproducing capitalism & class inequality.

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1944 Butler Act - Introduced Grammar schools, secondary modern & technical schools.
However the 11+ exam was culturally biased and favoured m/c. Those who failed were labelled as failures, causing self-fulfilling prophecies and wastage of talent. 80% of children went to secondary modern schools & all of them left without qualifications.
1965 Comprehensive schools - Introduced by labour they were non-selective schools with no test for entry. Campell; 'bog standard comprehensive school', they were believed to not be specialist enough.
1988 Educational Reform Act - National Curriculum, OFSTED, league tables (marketisation), work experience for secondary school, exams at 7, 11, 14 & 16.
1997-2010 New Labour - Introduced paying w/c students to go to school, tuition fees & built academy schools in poorer areas e.g Hackney.
Benn; 'New Labour paradox' shows a contradiction in their aims of meritocracy as tuition fees served to deter people from going to university.
2010-15 ConDem Coalition - Free schools, raised tuition fees from £3K to 9K & proposed to turn all state schools into acadamies by 2020.
The coalition may have introduced free school meals for all infants in primary school, however they cut the EMA and cut spending on sure start centres and school buildings.

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