To think if you can no longer afford school fees...

Since only 7% of kids go to PS it's only logical that 80% of medical students come from state schools. If the numbers were different, you wouldn't be happy either.

You said that your medic friends have to pay thousands of pounds extra tax to get their children educated to a similar standard they needed to get into healthcare.

That’s clearly not true when the vast majority of medical students are state educated, is it?

Duly noted @Blarneytalk

Again, what's that got to do with the price of fish? Parents choose private because they find the demands of their job and the offering in the State sector just don't work.

OP have you looked at Labour’s manifesto?

They intend to use the money they think they’ll raise from VAT on private school fees to create 3000+ new nurseries, providing roughly 100,000 places for children from 9 months to 4 years old. These nurseries will be located in spare classrooms within existing schools. (Best Start In Life)

If there’s an influx of previously privately educated children moving into the state sector, I’m not sure why Labour thinks there will be classrooms going spare. Anyway, I’m sure they have a plan for that.

The VAT rise will also fund 6,500 new teachers, who, despite there being a recruitment crisis, are apparently waiting in the wings to take up posts as soon as Labour is elected.

These teachers will be targeted at failing schools. Interestingly, the number of schools classed as inadequate is likely to rise under Labour, not fall. Not because the schools will somehow magically become bad, but because Labour have stated in their manifesto that they think the current situation of 90% of schools being Good or Outstanding is ridiculous. They intend to bring in robust (translation: punitive) inspections with annual reviews for each school. This will only increase teacher stress, so I can’t see their 6,500 new recruits staying long. But I’m sure they have a plan for that. (Raising School Standards)

The VAT money will also fund a free breakfast for every child in primary school too. Apparently this is to improve the health of the under 5s by feeding them cereal and white bread. Highly unlikely the funding will stretch to something that costs a bit more like fresh fruit given that Labour have decided funding free lunches for every primary child is too expensive. Breakfast clubs are stated as being useful because they ‘improve behaviour, attendance and learning’.

Which brings us back to those 100,000 new nursery places for babies from 9 months.

Labour have said that this new provision will enable parents to enter the workplace by ending the issue of unavailable or unaffordable nursery care.

Labour’s manifesto also says they will reform employment support so it drives growth and opportunity. Our system will be underpinned by rights and responsibilities - people who can work, should work - and there will be consequences for those who do not fulfil their obligations. (Supporting People Into Work)

Have you joined the dots yet?

Wealthy parents will be able to stay home, bringing up their children, and forming closed bonds. Poor parents, who may rely on state benefits, will be expected to farm out their very young children from the age of 9 months in order to re-enter the workforce. If they refuse, they will face sanctions. Good Work will be the foundation of our approach to tackling poverty and inequality. We will create more good jobs, reform employment support, and make work pay so that many more people benefit from the dignity and purpose of work. Labour is committed to reviewing Universal Credit so that it makes work pay and tackles poverty. (Family Security)

In January, Labour also stated that they wanted to bring in a register of homeschooled children, and that checks would be made on their welfare. In principle, this isn’t a bad idea, given what some people pass off as ‘home educating’, but as the focus of Making Work Pay is also clearly to bring down the benefits bill, it isn’t too ridiculous to think that some of those home ed parents will be found wanting, their children compulsorily put into schools with breakfast clubs (remember Labour also want this provision to exist throughout the school holidays) and those parents forced back into work otherwise their benefits would be withdrawn. (The Guardian, 9 January 2024)

It won’t be too hard for Labour to do the checks either, or at least to build up a picture of a child’s home situation. They intend to bring in a single, unique identifier for each child, shared across all public services. Not too different from Scotland’s Named Person scheme, in many ways. Someone has to be responsible for the data, after all. (Best Start In Life)

If this is what you want, fine, crow about VAT being imposed on education in the private sector.

But if you haven’t yet read Labour’s full manifesto, now might be a good time to start.

Labour Manifesto 2024

And yet 75 - 80% of medical school students went to state school, they’re more likely to perform well, and they’re more interested in becoming GPs.

What's that got to do with anything? People who work long hours in hospitals don't have a lot of spare time for their children's education. This is how they make it work.

These schools are not financially viable then and has little to do with the proposed VAT. They will either have to close or work in different ways such as joining up with other schools in a similar way to the MAT (multi academy trust) system in state schools.

Another problem with this policy is that it does open the option for VAT on other types of education. People ask upthread about VAT on foodstuffs. The reason why it doesn’t happen is exactly because it means future administrations could add VAT to a food that’s seen as unnecessary by them but entirely necessary for a particular group (the pot noodle for someone in a bedsit having escaped abuse is the one often used).

So now we have opened the door to other types of education being sucked in too. But as I have said upthread the people who will end up caring the least are those at the top. I have bank accounts set aside already and if they ever do run dry my parents need a way of getting rid of money before the tax man knobbles it through inheritance…. So that’s another unintended consequence too.

What this thread has shown is just how tribal you can be? Well so can we and I can promise you the public school mine are at will live on and we will just be grateful our kids can live in a world separate from bitterness and twisted thinking.

If you read it thoroughly, I mentioned this being one of several economically illiterate policies which makes the UK less attractive and it has more impact than you think. I have interviewed two people in the past month from our London office who have mentioned this as a one of several factors for moving to my office.

You need to not have a gap between the @ and the username, otherwise it doesn't tag the person.

Thank you. He's worked bloody hard and I'm proud of him. Far better than I ever could have done!

Your son obviously

Good luck with the med degree@ Beezknees

My DS is planning to do a medical degree and he didn't go to private school.

Aren't you off to work Blarney?

What an educated and valuable contribution

Oh Blarney, go eat your croissant...

I'm not jealous at all. My DS went to state school and is planning on studying to be a vet. He's done fantastically without private schooling. There are just many more important issues that I care about, this is not one of them.

wah wah wah 😂

Because only when the elites have to send their kids to state schools will they start caring what state schools look like

This will never happen as the elites will always be able to afford great public schools - they do not use your average market town private school. The people that use these schools are pretty much the squeezed middle who get clobbered by whichever political party get in.

St Trinians much?

They threw chairs?

Lucky you. Unfortunately a lot of state schools aren’t. Ours made the local news recently because kids didn’t like something the HT had brought in and the pupils went crazy throwing chairs and being disruptive. But hey, as long as your school is decent, doesn’t matter about the others, most of which are pretty poor.

@Bushmillsbabe - how do you know OPs bank balance? Can't afford or doesn't want. Choices.