THE Government wants us to believe there is no money for repairing schools.

Schools minister Nick Gibb might as well have suggested that Liverpool schools will have to put a bucket under a leaking roof, because the country is skint.

However, become an Academy or a “free-school” and his boss, education secretary Michael Gove, will pluck some money off his magical money tree.

No wonder that schools are milking the academy cash cow – who can blame them?

And, as for free-schools, we know one school is getting £15m.

If the target of opening 100 free-schools is hit – including expanding the private Maharishi School, in Ormskirk, which teaches Beatles-style meditation – the bill could top £1bn.

What we are witnessing is a systematic and ideologically driven attempt to break local authority stranglehold on education.

Allowing schools to become Academies and parents to open free-schools is all well and good.

But it should not come at the expense of sacrificing schools that choose to remain in the safety net of local authority control. It is time for a bit of honesty from Mr Gove.

DAVID BARTLETT, City Editor