Families will find ways to get information about which schools are good and which schools aren’t. But in the absence of easily accessible official data, they will simply be forced to rely on old-fashioned methods such as word of mouth and insider information. The winners will be well-connected upper-middle-class types, who have access to such channels. The losers: poorer families and immigrants.

Why should we systematically cripple our government databases — at the request of a purported parents’ group no less — in order to reduce parents’ ability to get their children into the best possible schools?

But an awful lot of them do make use of their ability to vote with their feet, and the quality of the local schools is embedded in the price of neighbourhood homes. Why should the government conspire to conceal this essential information from homebuyers? What family ever made a decision on where to live without taking local education services into account?