Choice. This is the word most used to combat my argument that we should scrap the patronage model. When it comes to education, it seems that almost everyone thinks they should have a choice of the flavour of school their child should go to. I honestly can’t understand why this would be. I don’t get to choose which fire service comes to put out the fire in my house according to my beliefs. I don’t get to choose which jail I go to if I commit a crime. I don’t get to choose which doctor operates on my heart if I have a cardiac arrest. The point I’m making is that all the above services would indicate that they all generally do the same job no matter which facility you go to. Schools are the same. They’ll even say the same themselves. If you asked a Catholic school what the difference between the curriculum they deliver and, let’s say, an Educate Together school, they would struggle to answer. The National curriculum is the same whatever school you go to. Having a patronage system which is basically led by pluralism, that is, you get to choose a school according to your preferred religion, is bound for failure because it is impossible to achieve.
