Faith schools should be celebrated, not restricted
by Andrew Tettenborn, CapX:
Yesterday, the government announced a public consultation about state schools and religion. For nearly twenty years, state-backed free schools with a religious affiliation have been subject to a legal restriction that they may only select 50% of their intake by reference to faith. The government’s view is that this cap should go, and that such schools should be allowed to take account of religion in all their recruitment.
This has predictably caused uproar. Humanists UK said it would ‘disadvantage poorer families, non-religious families, and families of the ‘wrong’ religion’. The NSS said that it was ‘divisive and discriminatory’ and the Head Teachers’ Union said that there could be no ‘social or educational benefit’. Oddly enough, even ex-Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams joined in the attacks, signing a letter alongside such luminaries as Philip Pullman.
The complaints are misguided and overblown. The government needs to press ahead with what is, after all, only a consultation, and should continue to promote its own proposal. Here’s why.
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