'Modernised'
They are simply following its logic. The whole thrust of this document is not to defend the interests of working class children and students, but to create a 'modernised', though still class-divided, education system.
So nursery education is to be expanded, but only to half-time provision for 3 and 4 year olds. Class sizes are to be reduced, but no targets are set. Special needs are to be met in mainstream schools, but no extra funds are guaranteed.
No details are given of whether schools will be funded according to need rather than on a competitive numbers-led basis. Labour's acceptance of market logic, and its fear of offending dominant interests, also explains why Opening doors to a learning society shies away from the principle of elected democratic control.
The Training and Enterprise Councils will remain quangos outside local democratic control. The private schools will retain their privilege.
Blair's hurried retreat from the suggestion that Labour might levy VAT on private school fees is further evidence that as the general election approaches he will sacrifice any element of Labour's policies which might be thought to deter wavering Tory voters.
But it is the abandonment of the comprehensive principle that has aroused the greatest opposition. This is education's Clause Four'.
There is the possibility now, and the vital need, to build a very broad campaign around a simple but fundamental principle: 'For a fully comprehensive state school system within elected local education authorities'.
The Oratory Fathers also control St Philip's Sixth Form College in Birmingham, which they have been trying to purge of non- Catholic, mainly Asian, students.
It is little known that in 1992 McIntosh joined the board of governors of St Philips to aid this racist policy which some have called 'ethnic cleansing'.
The governors were recently heavily criticised by a Further Education Funding Council report for mismanagement. Their response has been to try to close the college altogether. March to News International. Bring Banners
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 76. 21 January 1995, Page 7