Clause 74
9:30 am
Jim Knight (Minister of State (Schools and Learners), Department for Children, Schools and Families; South Dorset, Labour)
Let me be clear about the alternative to the policy that we are discussing here. In the various interviews that the hon. Member for Surrey Heath has given, he raised the possibility of establishing as many as 5,000 academies or free schools. Given what the hon. Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton has just said about setting up a new quango, is he not effectively talking about setting up a new national funding agency for schools, and taking the funding of school education away from local authorities?