As Mark Twain said, a lie can travel half way round the world while the truth is still putting its boots on. I thought I'd take this opportunity to correct five of the lies told about Free Schools.
Not true. The money saved from cutting the BSF programme will not be placed at the disposal of the Department for Education for Michael Gove to spend how he likes, i.e., on Free Schools. How could it? The money doesn't exist. Cutting expenditure in any government department does not magically create a huge pile of treasure that can then be used for other purposes. Rather, it means that the government will not have to raise that money by increasing its borrowing requirement. So far, a grand total of £50 million has been set aside for capital expenditure on Free Schools -- which, under BSF, would pay for a single, solitary school. Michael Gove cobbled that together from re-allocating funds that had been earmarked for advising schools on what computers they should buy. Happily, they can use cnet instead. (To read more, click here.)
