Commenting on Michael Gove’s defence of Conservative plans to set up Swedish-style “free schools”, Liberal Democrat Shadow Schools Secretary, David Laws said: 

 “The Tories’ schools plans are deeply flawed both in terms of money and on the curriculum. 

 “Michael Gove’s plan to cut the education budget means his ability to establish new schools will inevitably depend on raiding the budgets of existing schools. 

 “On the curriculum, Conservative plans are in even more of an incoherent muddle. 

 “Michael Gove plans to impose an absurdly detailed curriculum on most state-funded schools, while allowing free schools to adopt a pick-and-mix curriculum – even if this means dropping core subjects such as British history and modern languages. 

 “It is impossible to justify in any logical way a system which imposes such centralized uniformity on 23,500 schools while allowing a small minority to teach whatever they like at the taxpayers’ expense.” 

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