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Privatise all schools, says London mayor aide
State schools should be run for profit by private companies, a senior aide to London Mayor Boris Johnson believes.
- Evening Standard
- Published: 23:41 June 29, 2008
London: State schools should be run for profit by private companies, a senior aide to London Mayor Boris Johnson believes.
Sir Simon Milton, the Mayor's adviser on planning and housing, said on Sunday that opening state schools up to market forces should go hand in hand with moves to make it much easier to sack incompetent teachers.
And he called for schools to "sweat" their assets by hiring out their buildings and facilities during the holidays.
Sir Simon, who is also head of the Local Government Association, said the national teachers' pay scale should be scrapped so that good staff could be paid more than ordinary ones.
In remarks that infuriated the teaching unions, Sir Simon said of privatising state schools: "I have no difficulty with that idea. My view is that councils are not meant to run schools any more."
Instead, town halls should buy education services from whichever provider they thought best suited to supply them. Then authorities should monitor their progress.
"The future is to have different school types to ensure there is real parental choice," Simon said.
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