Boys & girls from the working and lower-middle classes should be admitted at Government expense to Eton, Harrow and the 318 other English "public" (i.e., private) schools. Such was the revolutionary proposal, last week, of a special Parliamentary committee, headed by Lord Fleming. Its 65,000-word report recommended that up to 25% of public-school enrollment should come from economic groups unable to pay the £80 to £280 tuition fees.
Rooted deep in the past (Winchester was founded in 1382, Eton in 1440), the public schools have for centuries been the exclusive preserves of Britain's ruling classes. But the notion of changing this...
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