The former director of the Catholic Education Service, Dr Margaret Smart, makes a powerful point against Catholic schools moving to academy status (Letters, 26 April). Her argument that “changes in government policy can so easily have a disastrous impact on Catholic institutions that become too reliant on central funding” gets to the heart of the academy debate.Historically, the success and relative autonomy of Catholic schools in England and Wales had been based upon the existence of partnership arrangements between the Church and the State, realised in the ­voluntary-aided status of most Catholic schools. The funding of Catholic schools has been a shared responsibility of the state and the Catholic community. As Dr Smart implies, academy status with total funding from th