The Government's consultation on "Schools that Work for Everyone" will soon close and they are promoting it via the Education threads to get more parent input. If you haven't responded yet, you have until December 12th.
One of the controversial proposals is to revoke the rule that says new faith academies can only select up to 50% of their students with reference to faith criteria. This is often called "the 50:50 rule".
The rule was introduced by the coalition government, at a time when faith bodies were being encouraged to create many new schools under the free school programme. However, there has been pressure from the Catholic Education Service (CES) and some Orthodox Jewish groups to reverse it. The CES has refused to open any new schools while the rule is in place.
David Cameron's Conservative Government resisted that pressure, but Theresa May's Government is planning to give in to it, because they want the Catholic Education Service to create more schools.
There has been a lot of debate about this in the media. One of the lines of argument being used by the Catholic Education Service and at least one of the Orthodox Jewish commentators is that the 50:50 rule "discriminates" against children of the faith. They are suggesting that once the first 50% of places are filled, children of faith can't get a place.
However, that is not true. The second 50% is allocated "without reference to faith", meaning that faith and non-faith families are treated equally. For example, those places may be allocated by distance, or random allocation, just as they would be at a community school.
Often the second 50% of places are filled up by children "of the faith" too, if they're the only ones that want or need the places. But if there's demand from across the community then a wider range of families can benefit from the school.
In admissions terms "of the faith" often means adhering to a very strict set of rules about religious practice. The second 50% gives a chance to children who are "of the faith" but whose families don't follow those rules quite so well. It also gives a chance to families who are expressing a preference for the school for non-faith reasons, e.g. because it is their closest, or the best fit for their family values/aspirations.
AIBU to think that a lot of people don't realise this, are being actively misled by faith leaders, and are responding to the debate under a misconception?
These new faith free schools will be 100% funded by the state. Unlike Church of England schools which are intended to be for the community, Catholic schools are evangelical in nature. Yes, the CES is an excellent education provider, but they shouldn't be allowed to blackmail our government into funding the expansion of Catholicism.