Stephen Pollard • It was experts who landed us in this mess

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October	07
2004

It was experts who landed us in this mess

» Posted on October 7, 2004 03:11 PM » Category: Education

Martin Stephen, the new high master of St Pauls, made a bit of a splash earlier this week when he called for politics to be taken out of education. Power, he argues, should be taken away from ministers and handed to a commission made up of employers, universities, parents and teachers. "The essentially and unavoidably short-term outlook of politicians can no longer justify their taking decisions on education...Government has five or at most ten years to plan and execute its policy, less time than a single child spends in the system...Successive governments have redesigned and redesigned our education system so that it bears a resemblance to a wound operated on so often that all that is left is scar tissue...Every parent and child in the UK should have the chance to attend an impendent school regardless of the race, colour, creed, social or economic standing of their parents. In a world where the mixed economy is the norm, it is madness for government not to buy places in our schools."

I have a lot of time for Dr Stephen, one of the most thoughtful teachers in the country who, along with Anthony Seldon, is willing to say things which are unpopular with his private sector colleagues. And much of his analysis is spot-on. But although his remarks are not as bad as some, they are a variation on a recurring and superficially seductive theme in public policy debates: if only those grubby politicos weren’t involved. Leave things to 'the experts'.

Seductive it may be. But it’s also nonsense.

Who was it that got us into this mess? It was experts who abolished grammar schools for their presumed comprehensive paradise. It is experts who have devalued the exam system. It's experts who train teachers so abysmally.

Experts landed us with a police force which is now so warped in its outlook of its responsibilities that it's no longer a force but a service. It is experts who defend the NHS.

The truth of the matter is that experts are almost always insiders who defend the status quo on which they built their careers. The only experts who should count are those who use services: consumers. Tesco doesn’t employ experts to plan what supply should be. Its plans are based on what demand is.

Yes, politicians interfere and politicians are, at the very least, complicit in many of our worst public policy failures. But in many - most? - instances, those failures are the the result of a bandwagon started by experts.

Dr Stephen is quite right to stress the demands of employers. But experts - whther they be employers, academics or educationalists - shouldn't plan the schools system. No one should. It should respond to the demands of parents.

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The extrapolation of that is that Government should butt out of education altogether. A truly radical policy would be to give out vouchers that were eligible for any school and let parents have complete choice. Get rid of the distinction between state and independent altogether - make the whole lot independent. Unfortunately, the Tories are to scared of "Vouchers to pay for toffs at Eton" headlines to implement that logic.

Stated by: Bill Jowitt on October 7, 2004 3:57 PM

A truly radical alternative would be instead to offer LOANS instead of vouchers, then home-schoolers would be on an equal footing, and Education would be tax neutral, so we could cut tax and make school even more affordable.

Parents would also see the costs they were previously inflicting on society!

It's a win for Parents and Taxpayers, coerced collectivists will hate it!

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