British Education Reform

Education is being made over in Britain.

The government’s signal reform involves freeing schools from local-authority control, letting them set their own budgets, alter their hours and change how they teach. Michael Gove, the education secretary, entered office privately hoping that half of all state secondary schools would shake off their local shackles by 2015. That target will probably be hit this year.

Most of the new schools are “academies”, which are existing schools that have secured these freedoms.

“Free schools”, which have identical powers but are created from scratch, might really take off if the government allows them to be run for profit, bringing a wider range of suppliers into the mix. Mr Gove’s priority, however, is to expand the academy revolution to primary schools.

—The Economist