Public support for freedom of choice in schools does not translate into backing for all forms of diversity of provision

How does the general public regard faith-based schools? Are they seen as one of the ways by which individual parents are able to exercise freedom of choice? Analysis by Stratos Patrikios and John Curtice of attitudes to school choice and faith-based schools in all four parts of the UK strongly suggests that people’s attitudes towards faith-based schools have in fact relatively little to do with their views about giving individual parents the ability to choose. Instead, people’s opinions about such schools are primarily a reflection of their (collective) religious identity.