How can people protest about a grammar school taking in more poor pupils?

Middle-class families protest at their exclusion from grammar schools.” Not your usual headline, but news nonetheless of a petition signed by thousands of parents objecting to a plan by Birmingham’s six grammar schools to boost the number of poorer children gaining entry. The parents say they are concerned at the possible dilution of high academic standards, but not far beneath is a clear worry that changes to admissions will mean fewer places for middle-class kids.The situation reveals just how fraught the politics of entry to selective schools has become. Theresa May’s ill-judged decision to expand grammar schools is possibly her sole flagship domestic reform. Yet only a tiny number of poorer children gain entry to these schools: nationally, grammars accept only 3% of children on free school meals, and families in the Birmingham area pay up to £5,000 to coach their primary-age children for the 11-plus test.So, at a time of increasing crisis in classroom budgets, the government has had little choice but to make the admission of a few more children from less affluent families a condition of extra funding for selective schools. Earlier this month, 16 grammars were awarded extra cash in return for proposals to increase the number of places for poorer pupils.