Education - Rich pickings in City academies
WORKERS, FEB 2006 ISSUE
If the current White Paper on Education becomes law it will pave the way for even more different interest groups and companies to take over schools and run them. One of the latest is US group Edison, the largest company involved with state schools in the USA.
Edison senses rich pickings for those who get in on the ground floor of the proposed scheme to set up a network of new independently run state-financed 'trust' schools throughout the country, whose assets will switch from local authorities to the schools themselves.
Edison's chief executive has already had talks with Sir Cyril Taylor, who is in charge of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. Taylor has said that Edison "could open a showcase academy and be like the United Learning Trust [a Christian charity that runs several academies] with several flowing from that." Edison already has partnerships with 40 schools in Essex, Enfield, Bromley and Southwark.
Steve Sinnott, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers said, "Our attitude to Edison is that it is a for-profit company. Their interest in running schools in this country will ultimately be to make a profit. That's not how we want our schools to be run. They should be run for the benefit of the children and not for the benefit of shareholders and company profits."