A PANIC ABOUT SCHOOL CHOICE

It is now widely recognised that Britain's comprehensive system was ne ver truly comprehensive. Families with sufficient financial capital we re always able to ensure the entry of their children to particularly p restigious 'comprehensive' schools by purchasing a home within the app ropriate catchment areas. According to government rhetoric, recent leg islation established a market of schools, removed catchment areas and gave parents greater choice of school. This case-study examines the wo rkings of the local quasi-market of schools within a prosperous town ( Sutton Coldfield, England) which is part of the larger metropolitan ar ea of the West Midlands. Because of a change in the age of entry to se condary education, Sutton Coldfield was first plunged into the market in 1992. This case-study shows that the new situation initially caused confusion and anger. Some Sutton Coldfield residents were denied plac es for their children within the town and were instead offered places for their children in Birmingham working-class estate schools. The art icle describes the formation and activities of a local pressure group which opposed these changes, and reports the results of a small-scale study of a sample of parents' choice-making processes in 1993. It is s hown that access to financial and cultural capital had become more, ra ther than less, important in the process of allocating children to sec ondary schools.