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  Academies Bill - Decline Second Reading
  
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  The majority of MPs voted not to decline a second reading for Academies Bill[1]  ie. the majority of MPs voted in favour of the Academies Bill continuing on its path towards becoming law.
  
  The original motion being debated was:
  
  :That the Bill be now read a Second time.
  
  An opposition amendment, which was defeated in the vote, stated:
  
  :That this House declines to give a Second Reading to the Academies Bill (Lords) because
  
  *  it creates the legal framework for the expensive free market schools reforms which will be funded by scrapping existing school building programmes; 
  *  its approach is based on reforms in other countries which have seen falling standards and rising inequality; 
  *  it contains no measures to drive up standards, improve discipline or deliver greater equality in schools; 
  *  it fails to build on the success of the previous Government's Academies programme and instead focuses additional support and resources on those schools that are already succeeding at the expense of the majority of schools; 
  *  it deprives schools with the biggest behaviour and special educational needs challenges of local authority support for special needs provision, the funding for which will go to those with the fewest such challenges; 
  *  it permits selective schools to convert to Academy status, which risks the unplanned expansion of selective education;
  *  it removes any proper requirement to consult local authorities or the community before the creation of an Academy and centralises power in the hands of the Secretary of State over the future of thousands of schools without adequate provision for local accountability.
  
  
  
  
  References:
  
  *  [1] [http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2010-11/academieshl.html Academies Bill 2010]
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  --- COMMENTS AND NOTES ---
  
  (put thoughts and notes for other researchers here)
  