Labour - the party of choice

Chasing up a constituent's enquiry today, I make an astonishing discovery: her 4 year old has been denied a place in Davidson's Mains and even though she is 1st on the non catchment list there are already 3 more children in the primary 1 intake than there technically should be. To avoid an overcrowding problem further up the school the authority is hoping that 3 children will leave by 'natural wastage' by the end of Primary 2. A long shot, I should think, since D. Mains primary is very popular and once there, most children are assured a place at the Royal High. I had to tell my constituent it was unlikely her daughter would get in.
'A victim of the cuts then?' she asks.
Sadly, yes, since in this case her two older sisters already attend the school - it is now a family educationally divided...nothing astonishing about that, though.

However, In the course of my enquiry I discover that this is the first time in 30 years that Edinburgh Education Department has refused more P1 out of catchment placements than it has granted. In 1980, Alex Fletcher, Tory MP for Central Edinburgh persuaded Thatcher to legislate for 'parental choice' on the basis of his experience that in Edinburgh, parents wanted more choice in their children's school.

For a decade, Labour fought its effects then accepted - in the face of overwhelming evidence - the conventional wisdom that choice was important to parents. Nobody would really argue with that now.

Today, the Lib/SNP coalition, as a result of budget cuts, an artificial class size ceiling in years 1 & 2 and - if I may say so, a director and convenor who plainly don't know enough about Edinburgh's education history, have managed (in less than 15 months) to set the city back 30 years. And this is before the ratchet effect of further school closures. It won't be long before parents waken up to the fact that education choice in Edinburgh almost certainly means back to the sterile 'private' or 'public' debate.

History has truly turned on its head - the risk of a city again divided by what school your child goes to ...and Labour now the party arguing for choice...