Increased authority a remedy?

I read in the Guardian that the schools minister, Jacqui Smith, has announced legislation to provide teachers and support staff in lawful control of pupils with a legal right to discipline. It will also take discipline beyond the school gate, allowing schools to punish pupils for unacceptable behaviour on the way to and from school. Steve Sinnott, the General Secretary of the NUT, apparently said, "The legislation must focus on enhancing the authority of the teacher."
The issue should not be the control of unacceptable behaviour, but the removal of the need for it. If schools were places where children were welcomed, treated with respect and allowed to make their own rules most of the problems would just go away. E. F. O'Neill demonstrated this at Prestolee Elementary School from 1918 - 1951. David Wills demonstrated it at the Barns Hostel with supposedly unmanageable evacuees during World War II. Countesthorpe College demonstrated it in the early 1970s. Lorna Farrington demonstrated it at Highfield Junior School in Plymouth ten years ago or so. The Bedfordshire Schools Improvement Partnership is demonstrating it now.
Arbitrary authority fails to achieve its own objectives, but all the politicians can think of doing is extending it. How can we persuade them to consider the alternatives?