Michael Gove's education bill allows the education secretary to instruct local councils to shut schools that are performing poorly
The government will be given the power to direct local authorities to close failing schools under sweeping education reforms published today.
An education bill, tabled in the Commons, gives the education secretary the right to tell town halls to shut schools that require "significant improvement", and allows the government to issue warning notices to under-performing schools to improve.
Michael Gove, the education secretary, said the new powers would mean the government could "intervene whenever a school is not providing the kind of education children deserve".
But the Nasuwt teaching union said the new provisions had "all the hallmarks of a power junkie".
Chris Keates, general secretary of the Nasuwt, said the bill gave an education secretary around 50 new powers: "He can seize land to set up new schools, revise local authority budgets, close schools on a whim and make up his own definition of what early education means.
"This bill should be a wake-up call to all those who care about children's education that time is running out to stop this coalition from destroying our education system."
At least four quangos are to be abolished as part of the education reform plans.
These include the teaching profession's watchdog – the General Teaching Council for England – and an organisation that sets the pay for school caretakers and dinner ladies, the School Support Staff Negotiating Body.
The school curriculum quango – the Qualification and Curriculum Development Agency – and the Training and Development Agency for Schools will also go. The bill transfers some of the roles of the Young People's Learning Agency for England, which is responsible for college funding, to the Department for Education.
Gove said he was abolishing the the School Support Staff Negotiating Body because it "does not fit well with the government's priorities for greater deregulation".
But the Association of School and College Leaders has said the move is "a retrograde step" and could lead to staff who "play an immensely important role in providing high-quality education" being underpaid.
The organisation was trying to establish a national pay structure and working conditions for teaching assistants, "dinner ladies", school caretakers, pastoral assistants, business managers and other school support staff in England. There is currently no pay framework such as the one for teachers.
Their pay and conditions will now be determined by their school, if it is an academy, or by their local authority.
Gove has said he is "deeply sceptical" of the General Teaching Council for England and believes it "does little to raise teaching standards or professionalism". The watchdog is responsible for registering teachers and investigating alleged cases of misconduct. The quango takes more than £36 each year from every teacher and gives them "hardly anything back", Gove argues.
In terms of the new bill, the secretary of state will in future consider "allegations of unacceptable professional conduct, conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute, or convictions of a relevant offence and decide whether to prohibit the person from teaching".
Gove has vowed to cut bureaucracy in schools. He said that in one year, Labour sent schools 5,000 pages of guidance and information – the equivalent of two King James bibles.
"There are too many quangos that take up schools' time without leading to any real benefits to standards," Gove said. "Teachers tell us that they have to spend hours outside of the classroom going to meetings and filling in forms because of bureaucratic requirements. It takes them away from the core purpose of improving learning."
Other reforms in the bill give teachers the right to search a pupil who is of a different sex to them without another member of staff being present. They may only do this if they believe that, unless they conduct the search, the pupil may cause serious harm.
The bill removes the requirement for teachers to give a day's notice of a detention and allows teachers accused of wrongdoing to remain anonymous until they are charged.
The government will also introduce a higher rate of interest for student loans as part of the bill. A clause allows a new maximum interest rate of 3% above inflation, as outlined by ministers last year.
And the bill includes a clause regulating fees for part-time students, which will be set pro-rata. For the first time, part-time students will be entitled to loans.
These two clauses relating to university students have been added to the bill so that they are in place for 2012, when universities start charging higher fees.
Aaron Porter, president of the National Union of Students, said higher interest rates would hit the poorest students the hardest.
"Wealthier students, who do not have to take out loans, will escape higher interest charges," he said.
He warned that the new system also breaks Islamic teachings which forbid taking out loans that incur interest charges. Ministers risked punishing those with certain religious beliefs, Porter said.