I do not pay to be insulted. Your editorial, 20 May, states that academy chains such as E-Act and Ark “are largely staffed by ex-heads, ex-local authority officers and ex-teachers. People rather like you”. Two pages later, “Gove talks up perks of academy staff” cites private healthcare as an example (page 4). A few pages further on is a piece headed: “Profiting from schools? Who cares, says former Ofsted chair” (page 13).

I need to point out to you the difference between “people rather like” me and those who promote academies and free schools. For me, the prerequisite for a good local school for every child is a co-ordinated structure of community comprehensive schools set in a framework of national and local accountability and regulation.

Setting school against school, introducing a market into school provision and promoting profit as a desirable outcome are not goals I share with either those in charge at the Department for Education or those who do its bidding.

Geoff Holmes, Sinderhope, Hexham.