Free schools 'wasting millions of pounds', NUT claims
Millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money is being wasted opening flagship free schools in areas with large numbers of spare places, teachers warned today.
The National Union of Teachers said new primaries and secondaries were being established in towns with thousands of empty desks – often at schools highly-ranked by official inspectors.
It claimed that the reforms – allowing parents, charities and faith groups to open state institutions funded directly from Whitehall – was having a “negative impact on existing good or outstanding local schools”.
The union is now considering legal action against the Government over its refusal to publish official information showing the full impact the policy is having on existing schools in local communities.
According to activists, ministers have turned a request made under Freedom of Information legislation to release full impact assessments on the existing 24 schools.
Kevin Courtney, NUT deputy general secretary, said: “We say that free schools are being set up in areas where they are going to be damaging to existing good provision.
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... (Daily Telegraph - 08 April)