PARENTS should have the right to vote on whether their children’s schools are converted into academies, campaigners demanded last night.

Progressive MPs joined parents and teachers opposed to school privatisation in Parliament to discuss the Tory government’s new Education Bill.

They met after the Bill, which includes new powers that would stop parents objecting to an academy conversion, received its second reading.

Prime Minister David Cameron even suggested in his speech yesterday that schools rated as “good” would be forced to convert.

He said: “If you’re not making fast enough progress in raising standards, you have to change and if you can’t do it yourself, you have to become a sponsored academy and welcome in people with a proven track record of running outstanding schools.”

The Tory-dominated education select committee found early this year though that there is “no evidence” that conversion improves outcomes for children.

Alisdair Smith of the Anti-Academies Alliance said that showed the Tory policy is one of “privatisation not improvement.”

He said: “They are flying in the face of evidence and what we should be looking at is tried and tested ways of improving schools rather than political dogma.”

And Mr Smith told the Star that a cross-party group of MPs will table an amendment to the Bill that would pave the way for academy conversions to be subject to referendums.

He said: “We’re going to seek to amend the Bill to try to seek some democratic elements to the conversion process.
“Parents should be able to have a vote in the matter.”

Labour’s front bench voted against the Education Bill at its second reading yesterday “because it fails to set out measures for dealing with inadequate academies.”

Left Labour backbenchers joined progressive MPs in other parties in tabling a separate amendment which opposed academies completely.