Racism, selection, poverty and parents: New Labour, old problems?

The paper outlines a critical analysis of the place of ‘race’ issues in the educational policy proposals of Britain's ‘New Labour’ Government, elected in May 1997. The article takes Labour's first White Paper, Excellence in Schools, as its main focus. Superficially, the stated concern to address inequality of opportunity signals a significant break with previous Conservative administrations. Years of deracialized reforms, for example, seem finally to be ended by a Government willing to address ethnic diversity and inequality as important aspects of the education system. Unfortunately, the detail of the document contains little that is new when addressing the position of minority students. In fact, its colour‐blind advocacy of grouping students according to ‘ability’ seems likely to reinforce and extend existing inequalities of opportunity. Furthermore, the discursive positioning of ‘disadvantage’ and the extension of disciplinary rhetorics, on the family and parenting, threaten to strengthen a New Puritan strand in public policy, likely to have especially damaging consequences for working‐class and ethnic minority communities.