One aim is to have 200 city academies by the end of the decade

This could see more schools in England being offered a form of "foundation status", giving them more autonomy than mainstream state schools.

This would make the governing body the teachers' employer and the admissions authority, rather than the council.

The proposals are to be unveiled by the prime minister later this week.

But this will not mean unconstrained freedom over admissions - as any selection proposals will be under the scrutiny of the school admissions watchdog.

Admissions 'touchstone'

And in practice, many foundation schools opt back into the admissions processes operated by the local education authority.

The leader of the Secondary Heads Association, John Dunford, forecasts that although there is much rhetoric about greater freedom for schools, in practice the changes will be more a "touch on the tiller" rather than a radical overhaul.

Dr Dunford says he welcomes more flexibility for head teachers, but within a framework that still encourages schools to co-operate.

"Heads will welcome greater autonomy, but it must be in collaboration with each other, in order to avoid the worst excesses of the grant-maintained era when schools were set against schools," he said.

The "touchstone" issue would be admissions - and in practice schools would not be making up their own selection rules.

There have also been claims that there will be a more extensive handing of power to hundreds of the most successful schools - allowing them to borrow money, set their own rates of pay and effectively to opt out of local authority control.

But there are concerns from teachers and local authorities that too much emphasis on the top-performing schools will leave a large number of other schools trailing behind.

'Two-tier system'

Chris Keates, the acting general secretary of the NASUWT teachers' union, has warned of a "two-tier system, with some schools having more money, more support and more opportunities than the rest".

And a Local Government Association spokesman has questioned what will happen to the overall level of standards if a large minority of the best state schools are removed into a new semi-independent status.

The government has already confirmed that there will be 200 city academies by 2010, which will mean a rapid expansion of these well-funded, non-fee paying schools, which are independent of local authority control.

Legislation already exists to give successful schools more flexibility over the curriculum and staff pay - under the Education Act 2002 - and there are suggestions that the government will push for the theory to be put into practice.

This act also encouraged the setting up of "federations", in which groups of schools form a partnership.

The drive for greater diversification has already left the "bog standard" comprehensive behind - with almost two-thirds of secondary schools now holding specialist status.

Sceptical

Although the Department for Education and Skills is refusing to be drawn on how more control is to be handed over to schools, the department's permanent secretary, David Normington, has already signalled the direction ahead.

"What we are planning is a reduction in controls, ring-fenced budgets, performance indicators which imply a one-size-fits-all approach and over-prescription of the recipe for improvement," wrote Mr Normington in this week's edition of The Times Educational Supplement.

"Centrally-prescribed reform has got us a long way. But this is the moment when we need to trust those in schools who have shown what is possible in the past few years in raising standards," he wrote.

If there is a radical switch of power to schools, local authorities will be concerned that this will be at their expense.

The Local Government Association says that parents want a good local school and to see standards rising in all schools - and it remains sceptical of the benefits of allowing large numbers of state schools to opt out of locally-elected control.

And it questions how planning for places and support services can be effective if so many schools are allowed to operate outside the local authority.

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