What kind of judgement on ten years of Tony Blair's education, education, education is today's rise in the number of pupils at private schools?
Despite declining numbers of school-age children in the population, the Independent Schools Council can point to a small increase over last year and the fact that nearly 40,000 more children are now being privately educated than when Labour took power in 1997.
The increases were confined to sixth forms - where pupil numbers are still on the rise - and the nursery sector but there is no doubt that independent schools are flourishing despite steep fee increases over the past decade.
Blair's emphasis on education has been taken to heart by many parents and the prosperity the middle classes have enjoyed has given them the ability to afford those fees.
Independent school numbers declined during the John Major years - and no one said it was because state schools were getting better. It was the inevitable fallout from economic troubles.
How independent schools will fare if there is an economic downturn remains to be seen. State schools should be in better shape after a two thirds increase in real terms spending under Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown.
Longer working hours - a feature of the Blair decade - have made parents value stability and extra-curricular activities for their children, although boarding numbers are still falling.
Frequent testing in primary as well as secondary schools under this government was meant to reassure parents that standards are being kept up, but many parents as well as teachers find it arid - hence the rise in home schooling as well as turning to the private sector.
Parents also value languages - Jonathan Shepherd, general secretary of the ISC, said the government had made a "major mistake" in allowing pupils to drop languages at 14. Now only half of pupils in England take a GCSE in a foreign language.
One of Labour's more radical policies in 1997 was to abolish the Tories' assisted places scheme, which paid school fees for low income parents, and use the money to promote nursery education.
As the perceptive Richard Garner points out in today's Independent, private schools have reacted to this and the need to prove their charitable credentials under the new charity laws by offering more help to parents. About a third of their pupils now receive some kind of financial assistance. Blair might reflect, says Garner, that scrapping the scheme and tightening up the laws on charitable status were "decisions well taken".
But if you believe that many parents now see education as a competitive advantage for their kids, no improvement in state schools will placate them. They want to buy a private education precisely because not everyone's children can have one.
