The IEA’s Director General Mark Littlewood has written in the Sunday Times discussing the flaws in the UK school placement system and argues for the implementation of a voucher system to improve education quality.

“The statistics suggest that the challenge of navigating the school selection is a real headache, even a nightmare, for thousands of parents. This year, the official numbers suggest about 15 per cent of applicants did not get into their first choice, but this disguises the real figure as a large number of parents probably do not even apply for their top pick if they believe the chances are so minimal.

“If the Labour Party forms the next government, the stampede for places at desirable state schools will worsen. About 600,000 students are presently in the independent sector, but this is certain to fall under Sir Keir Starmer’s policies. Private schools will be stripped of charitable status and VAT will be levied on school fees.

“The reform we really need is to embrace Milton Friedman’s policy proposal of the 1950s — to introduce a voucher system to allocate school places. Parents would receive a voucher annually from the state based on the average cost of a school place for a child of a given age. They then become empowered customers rather than citizens trapped in a bureaucratic system.”

Read the full article here.