Hyman does not support all aspects of free schools, but he is not retreating from the challenge of making one work
"At least Thatcher was attempting to change things," Peter Hyman told the Guardian a couple of years ago, defending the radical cause against the frequent conservatism of party politics. "It angers me that political debate is so constrained that no adult dialogue can really happen." He knows about that, as a former Downing Street aide to Tony Blair, who unlike many people on the political inside decided not to search for the predictable winnable Labour seat and subsequent frontbench job but instead trained as a teacher. Hyman hasn't ducked out of politics entirely: he turns up on Newsnight and he has written a book about his experiences. But his immersion in a world beyond Westminster has been sustained. He's risen from teaching assistant in a London comprehensive to a deputy head. This week, he's announced plans for a new free school, to open in Newham, east London, using powers established by the coalition government. No doubt some will see this as a Blairite sell-out, a breach of the defences some teachers want to erect against Michael Gove's plans. This would be to make the very mistake Hyman identified in that Guardian interview: to put rigid, uncreative partisanship against the needs of radical policy. If free schools are to exist, it is right that they do more than allow middle-class parents in smart areas to escape the state system. Hyman does not support all aspects of free schools. But to his credit he is not retreating from the challenge of making one work.