Education Secretary Michael Gove has hailed the introduction of free schools as an opportunity to transform the lives of disadvantaged children and young people. He believes fervently that new state-funded independent schools will give poorer children access to the "kind of education only the rich can afford" at the same time as offering parents the holy grail that is school choice.
But his proposals to allow groups of parents, teachers and charities to set up schools in anywhere from a disused warehouse to a former hospital have alarmed many education professionals.
John Dunford, general secretary at the Association of School and College Leaders, believes free schools will damage other local schools.
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