Free Schools will benefit some children at others' expense", writes Fiona Millar, one of the loudest voices against the free school movement. She is joined by the NASUWT and the NUT in deploring the scheme. Yet institutions aside, the most frustrating additions to this chorus of criticism are those who decry Gove's plan as a terrible idea without understanding what they are complaining about.

With their freedom to hire and fire teachers, it is unsurprising that the unions hate the idea of Free Schools. But for those who complain that the current state education system is broken to condemn this project before it has lifted its feet off the ground, simply because "this is just change for change's sake- we don't want or need them" is obstinate and counterproductive.

British children rate 16th in the world for science, 25th for reading and 28th for maths, according to the OECD's 2009 report. The 2000 report ranked them 4th, 7th and 8th. We now spend over £80 billion a year (double what we spent in the 1990s) on education yet standards have nose-dived. The British education system is broken - things must change.

Free Schools have been proposed as part of a solution. If we dare to be optimistic, considering both the success of the schools' American counterparts and the promising start to those opened in England last month, we might just conclude that this programme is not the meddling middle-class apocalypse that it is made out to be and should at least be given a chance.

The USA based, 'Knowledge is Power Programme' (KIPP), aimed to prove that children from low income families are just as capable as their richer peers, but are held back by inferior schools. Seventeen years on, with 109 new schools and endorsements from Bill Gates and Barack Obama, KIPP has had some staggering success. Statistics tell the story. Over 80% of KIPP students are from families on benefits, and by the eighth grade 98% of KIPP schools are outperforming their local districts in reading, and 66% in mathematics.

The counter-argument is obvious - cold statistics say little about the quality of a child's experience. Yet frequent praise from visitors on the interested and well-mannered nature of pupils corroborates what the stats imply - children do well from these schools.

Hopping back across the pond, the 24 Free Schools that have opened in Britain since September -state-funded, non-selective and free of Local Authority control - have had a turbulent but ultimately promising start. Toby Young's West London Free School offers the best elements of innovation and tradition - with Latin and IT both parts of the curriculum. Sajid Hussain's Science academy in Bradford, where the population is 60% Pakistani, and Woodpecker Hall in Enfield by their very existence dispel the myth that Free Schools are the domain of the white middle classes.

When asked about what would happen if the new schools fail, Michael Gove said: "If they falter, if things go wrong, if there's any jiggery-pokery, schools will close." No one, even their 'creator' is painting Free Schools as the magical solution to all of Britain's educational problems.

Like KIPP schools before them, they will face strong and genuine criticism from those who worry that these schools will not help those who really need it. Teething problems must be ironed out - Millar is right, for instance, to criticise Gove's mixed messages about the level of regulation. But we must commend the government for recognising that things cannot carry on the way that they are, and we must give this solution a chance. The damage done by previous governments to our "education education education" system has been an expensive lesson to learn.

We must not waste it.