The government's trust schools policy has its latest outing today with the news that a further 115 trust schools are to be launched with sponsors from both the private sector and charities.

The government yesterday announced 115 new trust schools, including the first co-operative trust school where pupils, parents and teachers will have a say in how it is run. Trust schools are paired with businesses or charities giving them powers to appoint staff, own their buildings and set their admissions policies. Sponsors announced today include the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Barnardo's, Microsoft and Unilever.

We know that the whole trust schools thing is a bit of sham - it's a manifestation of the wrong-headed idea that the problems with UK schools are a failure of management; that all we need to do is get the right people steering the boat and it will be miraculously transformed from a leaking tub to a sleek ship-of-the-line. But it will take many more years of failure before people realise this, and only then might they deduce that the problem is lack of competition rather than lack of management.

The eye-catching thing about this announcement is the identity of some of the sponsors. I mean, the RSPB? Money is going to be diverted from twitchers to teachers? One wonders what the members will make of that. You thought you were handing over your membership fee to run nature reserves and twitching courses, but actually you were paying for a futile attempt to address education policy failures. You've paid your taxes, you've made your contribution to state education, and now you can pay all over again. Charity becomes a voluntary tax.

We can see where this will lead. If people see their charitable contributions being diverted to fund state activity, they will quickly stop giving to charity at all. That would be sad, but I can't help feeling a certain sense of inevitability about it.