State sector schools could be as good as public schools if they were free to spend government education cash, a senior Conservative has said.

In a pamphlet published by the right-leaning Centre for Policy Studies, John Redwood argues that giving funds direct to state schools would give individual institutions the same resources as public schools.

"It is time to recognise that the governing principle underlying post-war education policy has failed," he says.

"So why not free all state schools from government, and give them the same legal status as an independent school?.

"Despite countless initiatives, reorganisations and upheavals, standards among the poorest people in society remain stubbornly low."

Known as a leading Thatcherite thinker, the former cabinet minister reworks laissez-faire thinking to redistribute - rather than cut - government spending on education.

"Giving schools control over practically all the money voted for school education could transform the school budgets," he suggests.

"Let everyone go to a private school. Let the taxpayer pay for the many to go to a school of their choice. Let the money follow the pupil.

"And let educational bureaucracies which have let children down so badly be transformed into competitive service providers - or wither."

If state schools became independent schools with publicly funded fee paying pupils - at £5000 a year - choosing the best education for themselves, the Wokingham MP suggests the old "snobbery" surrounding public schools could be vanquished.

"The snobbery which assumes that public schools are best must be challenged. The next generation could soon all have access to high quality education, whatever the size of their parents' bank balance," he believes.

"If schools are freed, then a different, better world for the many is within grasp. Each community would be free to build and run schools they are proud of. The Berlin Wall that divides state from independent education would fall."

Redwood wants a new principle to rule in education - "trust".

"A new governing principle is needed: trust. In order to realize for all children the opportunities which good education brings, the people who are to deliver it must be trusted. These people are parents and teachers," he writes in "Power to Parents".

Redwood - who "made his way from a Kent council estate as a small boy to a fellowship of All Souls College, Oxford" - uses the pamphlet to mount an egalitarian attack on the idea that poor or working class parents are unsuited or unable to make the right education choices for their child.

"It is deeply patronising to say to a child that if he or she is the offspring of someone who is unemployed or badly educated themselves, then there is no real hope for them," he says.

"Outside every poorly performing school's gates can be found groups of concerned parents who want the best for their children and would dearly like to move them to a better school - if one was available.

"The income level of the parent does not determine how much they care about their children."

He condemns liberal assumptions that educational choice necessarily leads to discrimination against working class parents

"[It is not] the case - as is often implied - that only middle-class parents have the nous to exploit freedom of choice," says Redwood.

"This highly pejorative assumption, which would not be tolerated if it came from the right wing of politics, passes as compassionate and progressive thinking when it comes from the left," he believes.

The MP also warns that political correctness is killing off good school libraries - a vital facility, Redwood believes, for inspiring and engaging young minds.

"Many secondary school libraries are a disgrace," he claims.

"The collections are thin, the opinions all of one kind. The world is portrayed in the dull black-and-white hues of political correctness."