According to the Independent, surveys consistently show that more than 50 percent of British families would like to send their kids to private schools, which cost on average ??7,000 per year, but fewer than 7 percent can actually afford to do so. Does a quality education have to be so expensive? Civitas, a leading British think tank, thinks not and is out to prove it with a chain of "New Model Schools" that will charge only ??3,000 a year. According to Civitas's deputy director, Robert Whelan, the schools are designed to challenge both the public sector, which he argues is failing kids, and the private sector, which he believes is failing parents "by not providing a sufficiently wide range of products." Whelan insists that the curriculum will be rigorous, students will be "reading and adding up after just one year," school discipline policy will be "firm," and the New Model Schools will emphasize music, art, and P.E., subjects that many complain have been squeezed out by the national curriculum. The first school is fully staffed and slated to open in London in September.
"Cut-price private schools set for launch," by Nicolas Pyke, Independent, May 30, 2004, http://education.independent.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=526323