Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/469/1956
From The Socialist newspaper, 11 January 2007
Ruthless Ruth Kelly
FORMER EDUCATION Secretary Ruth Kelly has angered parents and teachers. She took her son out of an inner London state school and sent him to a £15,000-a-year Home Counties prep school that prides itself on getting pupils into top 'public schools' such as Eton and Harrow.
Keith Whitehead
She said that her son suffers from dyslexia but her local authority Tower Hamlets has a wide range of schools that can support children with learning difficulties. Six of them were rated 'excellent' and 14 good even by OFSTED, who said that pupils with learning difficulties at her son's old school made "particularly good progress".
Ironically, one of her government's most controversial education policies is to insist that children with learning difficulties should be removed from special needs schools and be placed in mainstream state schools.
New Labour has shut 117 local authority special needs schools, many of them very successful, since coming into office. 20 of these closures were authorised by Kelly herself in her time as Education Secretary.
If Kelly was serious about the prospects for children with learning difficulties, she would be backing the campaigns to save such schools. Kelly is plainly opting out of the state system because she can afford to do so. She is an overpaid hypocrite and a typical New Labour minister.
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In The Socialist 11 January 2007:
Sri Lankan government blamed for violent attack on ant-war rally organiers
Union action can defend the NHS
Manchester NHS: "Making it better" means making it worse
Socialist Students
Students fight for free education
ISR and Socialist Students' conference - a political voice for young people
Socialist Party news and analysis
Murderous raid on anti-war meeting
Violence against women
Ipswich murders lift lid on violence against women
Socialist Party review
International socialist news and analysis
Ethiopia invasion throws Somalia further into crisis
The Lagos oil pipeline tragedy was avoidable
Northern Ireland: New governing executive looks in doubt
Socialist Party workplace news
Construction boom - workers organise
Public transport and private ownership don't mix
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