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Schools White Paper

I have a lot of time for the hon. Gentleman, but I do not think that he quite understands the relationship of schools with the local authority under these proposals. We are proposing a system in which schools have the freedom and flexibility to tailor their curriculum and starting structures to develop the ethos that they need to raise standards for their pupils, at the same time working within a local framework whereby they spread success and work with each other as they drive up improvements across a system in which the local authority remains as the allocator of schools and the guarantor of good school standards.