"Katharine Birbalsingh, who received a standing ovation for her attack on the “broken” education system, is being blamed for the sudden closure of the inner-city academy where she was deputy head.School choice in action? Those who favour this should celebrate. Perfect competition requires, as every A Level economics student knows, perfect knowledge. Potential customers of St Michael and All Angels were able to obtain this from Ms Birbalsingh and also via the power of the blogosphere. If they'd read Mr Chalk, for example, they would have understood that, "[E]verything she says is completely true."
St Michael and All Angels in Southwark, south London, has been declared “non-viable” after applications fell dramatically in the wake of Ms Birbalsingh’s remarks.
Canon Peter Clark, the chairman of the school’s governors, said that her attack on incapable teachers 'blinded by Leftist ideology' had dealt a fatal blow to the school. “The publicity that she generated was very unhelpful, which certainly didn’t help in terms of pupil recruitment,” said Canon Clark.
He added that an inspection of the school held shortly before Christmas had shown that “nothing that she said was right”."
Rational utility-maximising education consumers have as a result taken their custom elsewhere - so an excellent result all round. There's no need to worry about Ms Birbalsingh finding another gig since we also know from her now defunct blog that she is a much better teacher than her colleagues on account of the fact that they are, for the most part, blinded by leftist ideology.
