They are seeking to stop schools bowing to pressure to become academies as part of government plans they branded "a disgusting attempt to privatise schools lock, stock and barrel."
Head teachers and governors of "outstanding" schools have been put under considerable pressure to sign up to become an academy, according to the Anti-Academies Alliance (AAA), which is fronting the campaign.
But only 153 schools have applied to become an academy, a measly 10 per cent of the 1,907 schools that expressed interest, it said.
AAA national secretary Alasdair Smith said yesterday: "Urgent campaigning can stop all these schools becoming academies.
"Given there are about 24,000 schools in England and Wales, it does not amount to the 'schools revolution' the Tories heralded before the election."
Campaigners are gobsmacked that, despite massive opposition, the government's Academies Bill was passed last month.
They argue the new Act has nothing to do with improving education standards but is a blatant political drive to "break the monopoly of state education" and create "educational inequality and social segregation."
The AAA is working with parents to launch a series of campaigns around the country at the beginning of the new school term.
A lack of proper consultation of schools going for academy status will be at the centre of the campaigns.
The AAA believes the Academies Act was deliberately amended to require limited consultation.
Teaching union GMB has also backed the campaign. Senior organiser Warren Kenny warned against cuts to jobs, pay or pensions as a result of a school moving to academy status.
"It is absolutely clear that support staff, parents and governors seem to have been left out of the discussions," he said.
National Union of Teachers general secretary Christine Blower said academies and free schools "will privilege the few at the expense of the many."
Free schools are funded by the taxpayer but run by private organisations without democratic oversight.
Fellow union NASUWT leader Chris Keates said: "The expansion of the academy schools programme and creation of free schools has more to do with breaking the monopoly of state education by severing the links with local authorities than with raising standards of education.
"Academies and free schools are a recipe for educational inequality and social segregation."
The academies issue is expected to create further damaging divisions within the Con-Dem coalition, with the Liberal Democrats preparing to call for a boycott of academies and free schools at their conference next month.
The AAA is producing a new edition of its newspaper, compiling leaflets and will announce details of more than 20 campaign meetings across the country.
From morning star Sunday 22 August 2010
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