Parents, Pupils and Grant‐maintained Schools

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Abstract
The 1988 Education Reform Act allows schools to ‘opt out’ of local education authority (LEA) control and become ‘grant‐maintained’ (GM). Advocates of the policy claim that ‘freeing’ schools from LEAs will enable them to become more responsive to parents and, through diversifying the education ‘market’, expand parental choice. The policy's critics, on the other hand, fear that it will contribute to a divisive system of education and ultimately diminish choice and opportunity. Five years on, it is possible to begin to evaluate some of these claims. Drawing on interview data from parents and pupils who use GM schools, as well as parents and pupils in LEA and independent schools, this paper explores the extent to which GM schools have diversified educational provision and expanded parental choice. The paper argues that there is little evidence to suggest that GM schools offer either a ‘new’ alternative or a ‘new’ educational experience. Neither do they appear to offer parents greater participation in the running of their schools. However, while GM schools may not constitute anything ‘new’, they are beginning to cultivate an image of being somehow ‘different’ from their LEA counterparts. Although it is too early to demonstrate the significance of such ‘differences’, exploration of two ‘micro‐markets’ indicates that opting out preserves and pronounces existing differences between schools.

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