POOR schools would close and good ones expand under plans being considered for Labour’s third term to give parents genuine choice over where to send their children.

Proposals being considered would mean a complete overhaul of the timetable for admissions to schools to enable parents to make their choice much earlier and give local education authorities time to provide extra teachers and classrooms to meet demand.

Funding would follow the child in line with the wishes of parents and the “rationing” out of places at popular schools would be ended. But unpopular schools with poor standards would face closure.

At present most authorities invite parents to express their preference in October or November for admission the following September; parents are usually informed in March whether or not their preference can be met.

Under a plan to be studied by Tony Blair, the process would be brought forward. For example, for admission in September 2006, parents would express a choice of school in January 2005 and be informed of a place by that July.

The plan, designed to flesh out Labour’s pledge to increase choice in the public services, is raised in an article in the latest edition of the Blairite journal Progress by Stephen Byers, the former Cabinet minister.

Mr Byers says that parents do not really have the right to choose. What they have is an opportunity to express a preference, which runs counter to parental expectation.

Admission appeals have increased by 50 per cent since 1997, and according to the Social Market Foundation only 70 per cent of London children get their first choice of school at the time of transfer to the secondary sector.

Popular schools are already able to expand but in practice find it difficult to do so. “Changing the admissions timetable coupled with the removal of the present restrictions and limitations placed on schools to be replaced by a new freedom to expand to meet parental choice would revolutionise our schools system,” Mr Byers writes.

It would take control away from vested interests and place it in the hands of parents. If secondary schools knew a full year in advance the children who would be coming to them they could begin the process of easing the transition and parents would also identify with the new school.

Mr Byers says: “School choice puts the levers of power in the hands of parents. They as citizens can be empowered to be a driving force for improvement.”

In words that will antagonise some on the Left, he says there needs to be a full debate about the role and limits of the market and market mechanisms such as choice in securing and providing high-quality public services.

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