Quote Originally Posted by Monty92 View Post
Dunno what the research says, but it seems logical to assume that chucking a load of kids into a state school who would otherwise have gone to private school will raise the standards of the state school

I'd definitely be chuffed to bits if my kids' school suddenly had an influx of the type of kids who get sent to private school.
Well, no, since the comprehensive experiment has shown that, without strict segregation and streaming (which Labour also opposes), everyone goes at the speed of the slowest, with the best dragged down by the worst.

Besides which, do you imagine the wealthiest people in the country wouldn't immediately game the system to ensure their kids retained an advantage? All this would mean is that areas near good schools would see massive demand for property (imagine now, but 100 times worse) that forced even the relatively comfortable middle classes out of the area. Those middle classes would then sell their houses and move to other areas, forcing out those below them on the socio-economic ladder. You would end up with a tiered system by default and those at the bottom would be worse off than ever.

At the end of the day, you can't buck the market. Where there is demand, there will be supply - by whatever means. This is something socialists have never, ever learned because they don't want to.