In 2018, academies accounted for 72% of all English secondary schools, compared to 6% in 2009. English academy schooling conforms to marketizing trends in international education reform, but Conservative politicians have also attempted to promote particular moral values. This article analyses the tensions between neoliberalism and neoconservatism and applies this analysis to a concrete debate taking place within the Conservative Party in the 2000s and 2010s. It uses arguments made by an illustrative group of Conservative politicians to explore and analyse the tension between these two reform trends. The aim of this article is twofold. Firstly, it will present the key arguments which were marshalled by a selection of thinkers affiliated with the Conservative Party in favour of educational reform. It will do this by analysing Conservative articulations of the failure of state education; the role of the consumer and the relationship between democracy and the market. Secondly, it will explore the degree to which marketizing and traditionalist impulses in education reform should be considered complimentary or contradictory. I will conclude by arguing that the parent-consumer functions as a vanishing mediator between neoliberal and neoconservative ideological positions.

2018 年，学院占所有英语中学的 72%，而 2009 年为 6%。英语学院教育顺应了国际教育改革的市场化趋势，但保守派政治家也试图推广特定的道德价值观。本文分析了新自由主义和新保守主义之间的紧张关系，并将这一分析应用于 2000 年代和 2010 年代保守党内部发生的具体辩论。它使用一组说明性的保守派政治家提出的论点来探索和分析这两种改革趋势之间的紧张关系。本文的目的是双重的。首先，它将介绍一些与保守党有关联的思想家为支持教育改革而选择的关键论点。它将通过分析国家教育失败的保守派表述来做到这一点；消费者的角色以及民主与市场的关系。其次，它将探讨教育改革中的市场化和传统主义冲动在何种程度上应被视为互补或矛盾。最后，我将论证父母消费者作为新自由主义和新保守主义意识形态立场之间消失的调解人的作用。