Mr Kerevan writes about:
... the terrible mistakes made in Scottish education policy in the last decades of the 20th century - mistakes that have left us with poor literacy and low secondary school completion rates.I believe that the destruction of our world-beating education system is the greatest crime committed by Scotland's cultural Marxists. Mr Kerevan is an ex-Marxist who saw the light. Not too long ago he described himself to me as "a kind of Hayekian anarchist".
Kerevan tells us that Fred Forrester (a former teachers' union leader) has also learned some home truths:
"Almost uniquely among public services, education, if it is to be effective, requires a commitment from those being educated in terms of both individual aspiration and family and community support."and that:
... aspiration is always associated with housing tenure.I have always believed that Scotland's weak entrepreneurial culture is connected with the unusually high degree of public housing provision. That's especially true in the Glasgow conurbation.
George Kerevan calls for the introduction of Swedish-style independent schools. I'm sure that would be an improvement on Scotland's Stalinist educational disaster-zone. But it's not enough. We need to get rid of the welfare mentality that is the inevitable result of mass subsidised council housing. Maybe we should just give all the council houses to the tenants and end all further payments. That way we could improve our schools and the prospects for the economy.