Half a million submit appeals for school places
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The number of disappointed parents who have appealed against their child's school allocation is set to top half a million today, according to new estimates.
Between 1999 and 2007, almost 490,000 families lodged appeals, Government statistics, analysed by the Liberal Democrats, show. This will push past 500,000 when the figures for 2007/2008, are published today, the Liberal Democrats say.
In 2006/2007 alone almost 58,000 disgruntled parents appealed, and just over a third of these were successful. Liberal Democrat schools spokesman David Laws said the data was a "damning indictment of Labour's failure to raise school standards across the board, and to tackle the dramatic differences in results between some schools and neighbourhoods."
He added that the problem is worst in certain parts of the country, such as London, where the Government has failed to plan for rising pupil numbers.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments