Choice matters more than tuck shops

Does it matter that academy schools are defying Jamie Oliver’s fatwa against sweets? An organisation called the School Food Trust has found 89 of 100 academies guilty of harbouring tuck shops. Selling crisps, chocolate and even cereal bars. The Guardian is shocked and has made the story its page two lead. Schools with tuck shops, says the Trust’s director, ‘should be named and shamed for profiteering at the expense of pupils’ health… Mr Gove is putting ideology above children’s wellbeing’.
 
I plead guilty to having once been behind the counter at the tuck shop of Rosebank Primary in Nairn, blissfully unaware that I was poisoning Highland children with this filth. Had we closed it down, the kids would’ve just bought their sweets from one of the many shops around the school — the shop was there to stop them straying outside the school boundaries. But this isn’t about sweets, of course, but the Guardian’s ideological crusade to keep schools under political control.
 
What the Guardian report did not mention, presumably due to lack of space, is that the actual report shows academy school dinners are actually outperforming those of council-run schools, even by its own yardsticks. The following graph from page 13 of its report makes this clear:
 

 
The report actually says that academies ‘do no better’ on healthy food. But why let the facts get in the way of a good story? Or a good quote venting pious outrage from the School Food Trust chief?
 
I will admit one thing, though. About 18 months ago, I’d have responded to this story by saying ‘So what? If parents dislike the school, they can take their kids to another. That’s what Gove’s agenda is all about.’ But, since then, it’s become depressingly clear that Gove has failed to clear the obstacles to setting up new schools. For choice to exist, supply would need to outstrip demand. Instead, due to the immigration-fuelled boom in kids, supply is falling behind demand.
 

 
Without promoting parent choice, Gove is that much more vulnerable to the many people lined up to attack his agenda of empowering head teachers and schools. It’s a major problem, and the greatest threat to the government’s greatest reforms.