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Comment: Pimlico progress
Evening Standard29 May 2008
A High Court judge has thrown out objections to the transformation of Pimlico School, an underachieving comprehensive which had entered special measures, into an academy. This was the right decision. The Government's academy programme may have shown mixed results so far but it brings in substantial new funding and the expertise of external sponsors, including businesses and voluntary organisations, to schools in dire need of improvement.
Campaigners claimed the plan would turn the school into the "plaything of rich business people and their political friends". But that slogan unfairly maligns sponsors' motives. As for political friends, the Pimlico sponsor, John Nash, may be a Conservative donor but he is supporting a government programme which in fact reduces the amount of control Conservative-run Westminster council has over schools in its area. The majority of parents will welcome the fresh start for Pimlico School, due to reopen as an academy this September and to be rehoused in a £34 million new building by 2010. Future campaigners against much-needed academies should think twice before using public money to take their largely political objections through the courts.
