To think State education is really poor?

I suspect he’ll offer some form of incentive. Can’t be worse at hitting the recruitment targets than this bunch of utter twat badgers

He announced more teachers before today. Where are these extra teachers coming from? The magic teacher tree? They can’t even fill existing teacher vacancies, let alone additional ones. Teachers are leaving in droves, largely because of behaviour issues. That is not an easy fix.

This is rather naive and stupid. The PM went to Winchester college and suella also went to expensive private schools.

Plus they are hardly good examples if we want to talk about the kind of citizens and leaders private schools produce. In fact I sit firmly on the fence about the whole vat thing but mention of Sunak, Suella (and their cabinet peers) and not to forget Boris "lockdown party" Johnson reminds me that some private schools produce abhorrent individuals

Oh yes sorry he did. Again not much thought behind it. Where’s he getting them all from??

Just today he’s announced more teachers so …

His parents were first generation immigrants. But clever, qualified and hard working. People we should value highly.

Because those then unable to access private would have to use state and you know how they love to lobby and complain … and I suspect they’d have better connections than us plebs

Sunak? Self made? He went to frigging Winchester and his parents owned a chain of chemists. It’s not evolution that selects its cold, hard cash.

Then we’d really see what value private schooling can add and state provision would improve very very quickly.

JimmyGrimble why would state provision improve very quickly?

I no longer have DC in school, but nationwide per capita funding to level the regional discrepancies would help. I read London posters often praising their local school. While I am delighted for them, my local community college's per capita funding, in a low-wage agricultural area is only two-thirds of theirs.

Stodgy Keir has made no commitment to education apart from the VAT brainwave.. I wonder why??

The self serving whataboutery on this thread is mind blowing. There’s nothing quite so radical as those who fear being thwarted in buying privilege for their children. I’d put all school places in a big pot and allocate by lottery. Then we’d really see what value private schooling can add and state provision would improve very very quickly.

I think we have a lot to offer and other countries look to U.K. education. I’m not keen on hitting successful sectors for votes.

BUT that doesn’t mean state couldn’t improve. However I’d do it through smaller class sizes and higher funding per pupil, without the VAT.

I don't believe this country is crippled, by private education or anything else. The PM is a second generation Briton of Indian extraction who worked as a teenage waiter, before making his own fortune via a scholarship and university, then marrying a woman whose father was also self-made; the cabinet contains more POC than any before it. If it is crippled (your word), it's not by inequality or by private education. Private schools are hugely hungry for talented students and mould them to burnish their own reputations, because that's how they build their brands. Worry instead for white working class boys whose families don't value classroom success as equal with football prowess, and blame a system that has disfunded and dismantled C&G certification so you prefer to hire a Polish plumber.

Obviously, appalling planning of anything in the public sector that requires investment is stymied by constipated bureaucrats ensuring that the smallest piglets get a shot at the trough, but evolution selects regardless. Let me remind you of Darwin's Theory: the most able, energetic and best adapted mutations are the ones that survive to breed the next generation.

Can you explain how this is crippling the country?

Are all judges incompetent? Are all actors rubbish? Would England have won more test matches if they’d picked more state school educated players?

That's not true. You are conflating two totally different things.

You can pay additional voluntary income tax. The government has a website where you can do this. Unsurprisingly despite many people claiming they’d be happy to pay more the revenue raised via this route is almost nil.

Yes. Posters quite often claim they’d happily pay more tax but apparently only 15 people in UK paid more tax last year.

https://amp.theguardian.com/society/2019/jun/25/britains-top-jobs-still-in-hands-of-private-school-elite-study-finds

In a long list of ridiculous replies this is one of your finest!

Other countries don’t seem to be so crippled by the inequalities private education causes in this country.

People tend to favour taxes that others have to pay.

I’d be interested to know why you think such a tax is long overdue considering it is illegal to levy such a charge in the EU and no other country in the world has a similar tax imposed on education. Are they all wrong to act like that? That seems incredibly unlikely.

Over half (54 per cent) of journalists are educated in private schools, despite only accounting for 7 per cent of schools overall.

As a PP said, without Brexit, Labour could not even propose VAT on school fees without imposing the same treatment for nurseries and universities. Education per se either bears VAT or it doesn't. There should be no cherry-picking.

Even journalism.... I don't like to shatter illusions but most journalists, and almost all columnists, have degrees from top RG universities now, followed by the NCTJ course. Many write on subjects in which they are degree-qualified. There was in the 1970s a pathway for others from less academic backgrounds via YTS on a local rag and progress to Fleet St. A friend's son is doing a Masters in writing now, and his best shot at employment is following up with a PGCE.

If they want. I still think VAT on private education is a long over due good idea and I don’t think I’m alone in that.