I had intended to comment on this yesterday, but ran out of time to do so.

Jonathan Calder (author of the Liberal England blog) had an excellent piece on the Guardian website yesterday. In it, he called for the Liberal Democrats to be more liberal on education. In particular, he suggested that the party should rethink its opposition to choice in schooling, arguing that choice is a fundamentally liberal concept.

I wholehearedly agree. I've long been quite confused about the opposition to choice in schooling. Whilst the notion of ensuring that every school is a good school is appealing, it is a utopian idea that should have no place in a party that prides itself on pragamatism and common sense. Failure does happen, and a head-in-the-sand approach simply allows it to continue for longer. Parents must be empowered to act when the standard of education their child receives is inadequate.

In particular, this passage caught my attention:

Yes, the Liberal Democrats want to return powers from Whitehall to councils, which would make education more democratically accountable and probably improve the quality of decisions.

But even then a parent whose child is receiving a bad education is unlikely to feel that the chance to vote for a different councillor in four years' time is much of a remedy. The Lib Dems must accept that such parents will be deeply interested in choice.

This underlines a crucial point which I think deserves much consideration - the principle of subsidiarity, or the principle that decisions should be taken at the lowest practicable level. This principle has been part of Lib Dem thinking on Europe for some time ("National parliaments should be given a new role in ensuring that Brussels’ proposals for legislation do not breach the subsidiarity principle - that decisions should always be taken at the lowest practical level." - link here).

Consistent application of this principle means that decisions should be kept as close to the people affected as possible - whether national, regional, local or individual. In the case of schools, this means giving parents as much choice about where and how their child is educated as possible. Children have different needs and even schools which serve the majority well may be unsuitable for some children. Standing up for minority interests is a traditional liberal theme and should be embraced in the field of education.