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Not since Tony Blair uttered his immortal "education, education, education" have schools played such a prominent role in a general election.
Despite unprecedented investment in state of the art buildings, inordinate command and control from central government and local authorities blocking change has resulted in many school children failing to get the education they deserve. According to the OECD, a rich country thinktank, British 15 year olds attained less in 2006 compared to 2000.
Last week I chaired the first conference on social enterprise and education, to examine the issues. The headlines were heresy: we covered profit in schools, schools run by parents, businesses run by and in schools, enterprise campuses, and co-operative schools. Neil McIntosh, chief executive of the CfBT Education Trust, who initiated the event in partnership with Social Enterprise London, opened by stating: 'the state shouldn't have a monopoly on education': thorny issues indeed.
This matches Conservative 'big society' and 'free' school plans, but it's a tune equally suited to Labour's commitment to federated schools and co-operation in public service, and the Liberal Democrats' support for an extended role for the third sector. All three parties, however, feel rather tentative around this agenda.
Our speakers were remarkably passionate and well informed. We heard from Paul Mason, of the Parent Promoted Foundation, founded in 2008 by over 2000 West London parents that wanted to establish a parent run school in the place of their failing local secondary and were told 'over my dead body' by the education director of the local authority.
'Is there really an appetite for this sort of thing?'
Answering the Paxman question, posed on last week's Newsnight: "is there really an appetite for this sort of thing?" Rachel Wolf, director of New Schools Network, told us over 400 separate groups hungry for change have approached her.
Our keynote speaker, Sir Michael Wilshaw, principal of Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney, argued that you can't build a top performing school in a deprived area if teachers go home at 5pm on the dot and investment from business is frowned upon. He argued that to close the attainment gap we need to be entrepreneurial and open to new ideas.
This is not a militia of middleclass parents wanting to take over while their prodigy attends the local school. Mervyn Wilson, chief executive of the Co-operative College, told us, that the kind of multi-stakeholder governance structures they had used to establish over 50 co-operative schools, will be around for the great grandchildren of the current intake.
As a movement we want to raise engagement and standards by mutualising education. We want the voices of parents to be heard, teachers left free to teach, headteachers empowered to utilise investment even if it does come from filthy trade, and most of all we want an education system that is ambitious, encourages excellence and inspires thought and reason for its own sake.
Social enterprise is not waiting for the politicians: we are getting on with changing communities and inspiring opportunities and I think they could do worse than follow our lead.
Allison Ogden-Newton is the chief executive of Social Enterprise London
From Bubb's Blog
From Flip Chart Fairy Tales
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