Let me try and get this straight in my own mind.

The Montessori School now charges its pupils up to £2,578 a term for a private education and now seeks to turn itself into a so-called free school at rural Elsfield, where the costs will be replaced by taking money from the existing local authority education budget (Oxford Mail, February 21).

It will be free of any state control and virtually unaccountable.

For the existing parents, that seems quite a good wheeze. They get the same education at no personal cost, making a saving of £2,578 a term – enough for a new Range Rover every couple of years or a jolly good holiday in the sun when the rest of us are trying to make ends meet in these very difficult economic times.

For potential parents, the choice will be: do I send my child to any one of Oxford’s fee-paying schools; or do I try and get to this school and receive a selective education for nothing other than what I can offer the school by way of inducement.

I wonder how many children from Barton, Rose Hill or Blackbird Leys will be going there?

In the meantime, Oxford children are being educated to a standard that shames Oxfordshire County Council and with a couple of million pounds less to spend, that can hardly help remedy this dreadful situation.

Free schools are a political fix, benefiting very few. The remainder will foot the bill.

David Buckwell, Wytham Close, Eynsham