I guess everyone has heard about the Academies Bill, but I wasn’t aware of the free schools part of it. Basically, groups of parents or teachers can set up their own schools!
There is a good Q & A on the BBC news website here, which tells you everything you need to know about the academies bill and free schools.
The free schools idea has been used to great success in Sweden, but one of the Swedish policy makers, Anders Hultin, that helped set them up there; seems to think the Lib Cons are making an error by not allowing the free schools to be run as profit-making organisations, he makes a compelling argument.
I think it is fascinating that people will be able to just start their own school and receive all the funding they need from central government, it pretty revolutionary stuff!