Yesterday the BBC published an attack on free schools under the heading free schools "will not boost access to good schools."
The BBC suggests its scoop is most authoritative:
Published in Research in Public Policy and carried out by a team from Bristol's Centre for Market and Public Organisation, the research examines the likely impact of government reforms.
In fact, the research is based on a comment piece on a blog by two academics in September, not a new research project providing original material.
Futhermore the two academics are not opposed to free schools. On the contrary they conclude they will be "very valuable indeed" by "acting as incubators for radical new teaching ideas." This is certainly an important point.
Almost every day brings evidence of this. People starting free schools are planning to do things a bit differently one way or another. This week we read in The Guardian that Peter Hyman's free school in Newham will start the day with taekwondo and chess. Or east Londoners might prefer to send their sons to the Boys Free School for Dance. It quotes Sir Ken Robinson saying: