A liberal curriculum?

Apparently, David Laws, the new Liberal Democrat schools spokesman, is planning to free up the curriculum and leave it to teachers to decide exactly what they teach. They'll have the power to set their own curriculum (and perhaps also mark tests, inspect themselves and decide whether to bother telling parents how their school is doing). Just like in the old days. Before we had a national curriculum. When only 40% of kids could read and write to a reasonable standard at age 11. That's what it says in the Times. But is Laws really planning this? Further down the story, we're told he only wants to give schools "freedoms to innovate with the curriculum" just like Academies (and just like Estelle Morris did as Education Secretary, though few took up the offer). Does this mean the National Curriculum would be scrapped or doesn't it? Is this a neat way of ditching the producerist policies of the LibDems while pretending otherwise (there's lots of talk of choice in the article, though choice is meaningless unless it is informed). Not that Liberal policy matters much in the greater scheme of things, but I feel we should be told.