The problem with granting independence to schools is that you never know what they’ll do with it. Quite a few of them want to use pre-existing freedoms to sell their school sports ground which happened all the time under Labour and was (like forest disposals) not much remarked upon.
But now, post-Olympics, the issue of school sports grounds has become hugely political and Michael Gove is being portrayed as the enemy of sports because he is not casting a ministerial veto. This is a small taste of what is to come for Gove: he has granted independence to hundreds of schools, who now have Academy status, and they may make all manner of other changes. They may decide to cut the costs of a science lab, and put the money towards better tuition. This is what the schools revolution is all about: letting a thousand flowers bloom.
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