TONY BLAIR is said to enjoy comparisons between himself and Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister but, on schools at least, he has more in common with John Major.

In September 1995 Mr Major declared that “all state schools should gain the benefits of becoming self-governing, independent schools free to parents”. Mr Blair said yesterday: “We want every school to be able quickly and easily to become a self-governing independent state school.”

Mr Major ran out of time, hampered by party divisions over his plan to make schools grant-maintained. Mr Blair faces opposition in Cabinet and on Labour’s backbenches to his proposals. Will he also run out of time? The Prime Minister dismisses the comparison of his plans with grant-maintained schools, arguing that the latter enjoyed unfair privileges, “creating a two-tier system”. The same criticism is levelled against his plans by John Prescott and Labour’s tradi- tional wing. The “parent power” reforms, they say, favour elite schools while condemning the poor to sink schools.

However, Mr Blair is clearly conscious of the impending judgment of history on his commitment of “education, education, education”. His rhetoric to parents yesterday suggested that he believes this latest Education White Paper will fix the problems facing schools for all time. Government’s role in future, Mr Blair said, will be to remove itself from the education system “except to help where help is needed”. Will Mr Blair’s successors be able credibly to promise that education is their priority when power resides in the relationship between 24,000 schools and their parents?

The White Paper faces two big questions if it is to achieve such revolutionary ends. Do parents want the power offered to them to shape the school system, and will local authorities give it up? Mrs Thatcher claimed “parent power” as a slogan before her landslide 1987 election victory. Mr Blair understands the electoral consequences of opposing consumer choice. He now seeks to make “real parent power” his legacy as Labour leader.

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