Have you heard the one about the primary grammar school curriculum which was apparently launched without the advice of experts in primary grammar teaching, and with plans for a detailed secondary version which never materialised?
How about the major policy paper which proclaimed the importance of giving freedom to headteachers while simultaneously proposing to force thousands of their schools in a particular direction?
Or what about the document which reopened the debate on academic selection with moves to expand grammar schools, while stating that children who fail to get into grammars tend not to do as well as those in comprehensive systems?
The above three examples are no laughing matter, of course, featuring as they do in real policy developments which have at least threatened to have a major impact on the education of many pupils.
They appear to be instances of that most-frequently-spotted creature of recent years: the poorly-designed education policy.
But with the Conservatives’ wiped-out majority now meaning that any particularly controversial suggested reforms, which might prompt rebellions from backbenchers, will no longer be possible, a more optimistic - though perhaps hopelessly deluded - thought from this usually-exasperated Whitehall-watcher occurs.
It runs as follows. Have we reached “peak bad education policy?”
The question arises after watching how the democratic process has acted as something of a brake on bad policy in the past couple of years.
In March 2016, the dreadful White Paper Educational Excellence Everywhere proposed compulsory academisation for all schools by 2022, despite also boasting of wanting to give headteachers autonomy. I described the paper then as an example of policymaking in its death throes, borne of its own contradictions, while questioning whether I had read any worse example of the “art” than this in 19 years covering the sector.
Within weeks, the Department for Education had backed down on its central policy after opposition from many, including, crucially, some Tory backbench MPs. Many had questioned what the benefit would be to schools which were already successful from devoting time, energy and resources to changing their structures.
In September last year, the government published its Green Paper which proposed expanding selection. Again, doing so via a change of the law had to be ditched after the general election, with some Tory MPs strongly opposed and the parliamentary arithmetic seemingly no longer making it possible.
Watching this has been remarkably refreshing, given what has gone before. From this viewpoint, education policymaking in England has been getting steadily worse since I started covering the field in 1997.
U-turn if you want to
Among the other policies upon which the government has been forced to back down in recent years, even with the larger majority the Conservative-led government enjoyed in 2015-17, have been:
In the run-up to the general election, a string of reports were also published which criticised the DfE in the major policy areas of teacher supply, free schools and funding.
The Commons Education Select Committee has also criticised the DfE on its flagship policy of multi-academy trusts, while many observers, including this column, have been very sceptical about England’s new, largely-in-private, system of education supervision, the regional schools commissioners and headteacher boards.
And all this is going on, of course, against the backdrop of serious funding shortfalls which will cast a shadow over every spending commitment. This week’s £1.3 billion announcement for schools is rightly being treated sceptically, given that the cash is having to be found from savings within the DfE budget. However, the fact that £280 million of it is said to be coming from the hitherto relatively lavishly funded free schools budget may indicate at least some element of common sense being forced on education policymaking by events.
In last month’s Queen’s Speech, very little was proposed on education. Some might see this as a weakness for schools policy. But the idea of only reforms which can command at least some degree of broad support making it to the statute book sounds positive to me. If backbenchers can exert some quality control on education legislation, this is surely all to the good.
After the past few years we’ve had, less really will be more.
Warwick Mansell is a freelance education journalist and author of Education by Numbers. You can read his back catalogue here
Want to keep up with the latest education news and opinion? Follow Tes on Twitter and like Tes on Facebook
