Quote Dally="Dally"The whole point of May's suggestion is that wealthier neighbourhoods and so called excellent comprehensive schools go hand in hand. Were they don't initially the parents buy into the catchment area and house prices go up, making access for the less well off impossible. At least a merit based entrance system goes along way to addressing that. If tests were not of the same type each year then there would be nothing to tutor towards. For a species that put men on the moon, dealing with these trivial objections should not be beyond our collective wits.'"
It shouldn't be beyond "our collective wits" to provide a top quality education for all and to allow those with a more academic mind to prosper and to allow those who are better suited to more vocational work to prosper also.
However, so far, probably due to education so often being used as a political football, this clearly hasn't happened.
Your comment about house prices rising is impossible to overcome.
All state schools operate within a catchment area and sadly, it's a fact of life that, if a particular school is deemed excellent people will want to send their kids there and those with higher incomes will (over time) move into the area and accelerate house prices.
Also, you must remember that kids from poorer families don't usually have parents who can afford or are willing to ferry their kids to and from school, therefore, if the better schools are not on "the doorstep", poor little <insert name> has to make do with their nearest school, whether it's good, bad, grammar, comp etc.
Some private schools try and pretend that they "care" and offer a very small amount of scholarships but, the reality of this is that they are desperate to retain their "charity" statusa nd as such have to be seen to have value within their local community.
