BBC NEWS | Education | Democracy 'holds back education' The education system should be freed from local democracy if it is to meet the challenge of global competition, a leading educationist says.

This supposed conflict between democracy and education seems like something that should be discussed more. It seems that the problem isn't so much 'democracy' as an ideal expression of collective and individual expression but rather specific forms of 'democratic' governance. If sir Mike Tomlinson asks "Actually, what does local democracy bring to the education scene?" he's probably referring to things like local bureaucracy and politics rather than questions of self-determination. Indeed, he seems to be proposing even more 'local' democracy through Learning Trusts. The advantages of a similar arrangement seem to mostly logistical: "The trust can make decisions quickly, can be innovative in the actions that it wants to take and ideas and projects it wants to back..." So in a way, he is trying to introduce local democracy through the back door, similarly to the school board idea that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't work in the US.