Promising to publish information on schools, as Minister for Education and Science Mary Hanafin has done this week, is always a winner with the wealthier end of the urban middle-classes.
They are the only ones who have any real choice regarding schools. For most of rural and town-dwelling Ireland, choice may mean two schools, both of which are known inside out.
Just how limited that choice really is was amply illustrated by the school transport row, still not fully resolved at the time of writing. In response to the tragic deaths in Meath, Mary Hanafin decreed that the policy of three pupils to a seat on school buses was to cease.
All very laudable, until shocked parents realised that it meant so-called concessionary passengers, that is, those either not in a catchment area for a particular school or technically too close to it to require transport, were no longer to be accepted on school buses. So much for choice.
Parents often have valid reasons for by-passing schools.
Perhaps the Leaving Cert Applied (LCA) is not available in the local secondary school, and parents decide to send their child to a community school or VEC so that he or she can avail of the LCA.
However, that kind of choice cannot happen, particularly in rural areas, without transport.
The Minister appears to have conceded regarding current pupils, who will be carried on the buses, but the situation regarding new pupils remains unclear.
Given that lack of school transport will limit choice still further, it seems odd that the Minister is focusing on the publication of information, when there are so many other pressing problems that might claim her attention.
In fairness to the Minister, she is on the record as completely opposing publication of examination results, which give the narrowest possible picture of the life of a school, and are completely devoid of context.
She is proposing to publish reports on whole-school evaluation (WSE) and subject inspections, which do give a more balanced picture of schools.
WSE at second-level generally examines five broad areas, which include the level of planning and development going on, how well the school is managed, what the curriculum consists of, how well students are learning and being taught, and whether students with special needs are being looked after. WSE happens at primary level as well.
In December 2002, a document summarising 50 school inspection reports at primary level was published. It made for interesting reading.
For example, just under half the schools needed improvement in either the quality or quantity of accommodation, including ancillary accommodation. For those not at the coalface of Irish education, it might surprise you to realise that ancillary accommodation includes toilets.
Yes, that iconic symbol of Irish education, the rat-infested privy, is still faced by five-year-olds daily.
Schools and teachers in general are not opposed in principle to the publication of information. What does concern them is the nature of the information, and just how rounded a picture it presents.
For example, for much of the primary and secondary sector there is a constant battle for resources, and there is always a shortfall.
So if a school is found to be deficient in terms of special needs education provision, does the Minister propose to publish ongoing correspondence, nay, begging, by principals and parents on behalf of particular pupils?
If teaching methodologies are found to be below par, will it be mentioned that the classes in question were being taught in leaky pre-fabs with vessels strategically placed to catch the rain?
Underfunding is the major problem facing Irish education.
In a press release this week, the Minister acknowledged that "levels of expenditure at primary and secondary level are below average [ by international standards] in terms of per student funding".
Indeed, Minister. Ireland ranks 20th out of 26 OECD countries for funding of secondary school pupils. However, Irish education is performing well on most EU education benchmark indicators. The Minister believes this suggests "that Ireland is out-performing other countries in relation to the value for money spent at first and second level".
So, schools are underfunded, but apparently all that proves is that we are capable of providing excellent value for money even on a pittance.
No doubt, the various interest groups will fight their corner about publication of information. Unions will be very concerned that no teacher be publicly identifiable, but it is hard to see how this will be achieved in the case of small schools.
In the case of small two- and three-teacher primary schools, publishing WSE will be akin to putting the teachers' names and addresses in the local newspaper along with the report.
If subject inspections are published that is a minefield, too. In some schools, there may be only one or two teachers of a subject.
There is no doubt that schools do themselves no favours if they are too defensive. There is a lot of good news about Irish schools, and it would be great to see that in the public arena.
The Minister believes that school inspections when read in their entirety give a balanced picture. However, many teachers worry that publishing information will inevitably result in the media picking out any juicy bits, and ignoring the rest.
They also worry that this information will be used to fuel a consumerist approach to education, where schools are encouraged to compete for pupils. Schools need to maintain and improve their standards, but the way forward does not lie in encouraging parents to shop around as they might for the best pair of trainers for their child's feet.
Every school should be funded so that it can be a centre of excellence. We can afford to invest in education.
In fact, we cannot afford not to invest, because the level of educational attainment affects everything from job prospects to health, and even the probability of creating a stable family unit.
Of course, the Minister may wearily say that levels of investment in education in recent years have risen enormously, but the fact is we started from a very low base.
Certainly, publish information that does not target individuals, but let's make sure that the historic levels of underfunding endured by Irish education are prominent in any such publication.