It may be logical but there is still something a bit shocking about the idea of allocating schools placed by lottery, as Brighton and Hove council will now do.
Approval of the scheme by Canon Richard Lindley, the schools adjudicator for the Brighton area, and backing by the schools minister, Jim Knight, is opening the way for other education authorities to follow suit.
Labour see "random allocation" as a more socially just admissions policy at heavily over-subscribed schools.
The Telegraph is in no doubt that the lottery scheme is a setback for middle class parents. This is, of course, the intention of the scheme - to take away the advantage of parents being able to buy their way into the catchment area of a popular school, although it only applies to families within a two-mile radius.
Interestingly, the Tories, who have controlled Brighton and Hove since May, have not pulled the plug. Vanessa Brown, who chairs the children, families and schools committee, stressed that it would be reviewed in its first year of operation.
.jpg?w=600)
