What’s in it for me? Part 2

In the second of the posts on this thread, I will continue to answer:

Why give up a great job to take on a project that has little hope of success, for no pay; risking reputation and friendships?

As I proved in the last post, my reasons for leading the proposal for ONSchool are simple and, I hope, ethical.

Unlike those who are, perhaps, older, with pensions and savings to draw on; or the very well paid; or those with jobs that pay and a very understanding boss…. I work in the education sector, so never expected to be rich or to have an easy ride.

I have signed up to start supply teaching next week, and have had kind offers from friendly local primary schools to take cover work when it comes.

A well meaning tweep DM’d me to comment that he was worried that I was “back to square one”. Although that made me smile, it reflects a general concern that teaching is something you fall back on in hard times- only as a last resort! This is not how I feel about teaching. I never have. I have always loved teaching. I have just found other ways to support the learning experiences of children.

I have also had some very interesting offers and expressions of interest for other roles that might be closer to my more recent positions – but, we will see.

In the meantime, I have some answers to a few questions I posed:

Is it right to profit in any way from being involved in ONSchool?

As long as there is no conflict of interest – surely it would be ok. So, what are the options?

1. Write a book about the struggle to open a school: Toby Young and Katherine Birbalsingh have more in common than being darlings of the Tory right. They both seem to thrive on controversy and have new books (and a backlist) to promote. So, for them, it is totally possible to profit from their involvement in opening a free school without there being a conflict of interest! But, for those of us who are not interested in writing a book, and do not want to progress through upsetting and alienating people- what else can we do?
2. Keep the details of what we have proposed as ‘Intellectual Property’: Either try to ‘sell’ the fruits of the hard work – and licence to someone who wants to copy it, or sell the ‘rights’. Although this is attractive, I am not sure about the idea that something as locally based as a free school proposal can ‘translate’. Surely all the value is in the expertise creating and implementing a local project of engagement?
3. Sell consultancy and expertise gained: Until a few weeks ago, I could not have imagined how anyone would have objected to this – but I have read lots of criticism of people doing this – almost definitely without enough knowledge of the details to be casting aspersions. Still, it is proof that those of us involved in running free school projects must, somehow, be restricted to a very few roles (see above) and cannot do what they used to when working for LAs!

Is there a moral difference between being paid by a Local Authority and a private company if the work is the same?

How is it that there are smart people out there, who are totally entitled to think that Free Schools are evil – who cannot see the logical inconsistency of criticising people for doing what what 1000s of ex-LA authority consultants have been forced to do? Loads of these amazing people have been forced to sell their services back to the schools they used to support with LA badges on. Of course, this is madness – but it is happening. They are not evil people. There are people who value their expertise – gained while working at the tax payers expense, in state sponsored schools. And there are schools / organisation / companies that will pay for this.
Can’t I do that?

How can I learn from others who have opened free schools?

I wish I could! Unfortunately, there is very little sharing going on between proposer groups. The one great space that evolved (thanks to Tom Legge of Place Group), on Linkedin, has now become full of service providers broadcasting their wares to people like me! I have set one up for proposers alone – and hope that others will join!

Given that the free school policy is changing the landscape in education – is it ok to stake a claim in the new territory  – or should I wait till others have proven the ground?

Should we wait until all the ethics are clear and there are boundaries and guidelines and companies that dominate the space… Nah!
I do not want to wait for the academy chains to dominate education, I want free schools to be opened and led by passionate people who care about their local education system – and the quality of their kid’s education. Don’t you?

How many more risks can I afford to take?