If you're worried about rising private school fees..

[CurlewKate]

... why not just get a better paid job? It apparently works for poor people.

@Palomabalom they won't though. People will not move abroad because of this. To be frank, people want an easy life. Having to navigate a country where the majority don't speak your mother tongue and you are still learning their language is bloody hard. I think people only do that if they really feel drawn to that experience. Ask the average well off family who are moaning about private school whether they would consider moving to France or Spain, the majority will say no.

Why do you say it would be very much poorer without private schools and rank tables? I don't think Finland has any of those things and is widely regarded to have the best education system in the world.

The world is round yes. The U.K. is not the last Coke Zero on the desert.

I agree.
It right up there with people saying if they have to pay inheritance tax (AFTER THEY'RE DEAD) they'll never buy a house and live in poverty on benefits their whole life instead.

@Highandlows ok so if you live in the UK, where would you go if things got too tough for you here? Because my understanding is that people use these threats and have little knowledge of what is out there and whether it is actually better. I have family in other countries, life on the whole is more expensive over there. Even the Lidls are far more expensive. My job wouldn't translate to another country exactly as so much of what I do relates to culture and understanding of the local population, but also the rules and regulations/ health bodies/ CQC/ the law. I expect there are many who would be in the same boat.

You need both but you most certainly need the tax burden paid by high earners to employ the public sector

Unless you are willing to take the tax burden it needs to be covered

@EasternStandard another option would be to subsidise childcare, make childcare work a decently paid and respected profession and get all SAHP back to work so they can pay tax. I DGAF if their husband/ wife is a high bracket tax payer, they aren't personally contributing. They also hold other working lone parents back by doing all the home stuff so their spouse can focus on getting those promotions.
Can you sense I'm bitter?

The money made from taxing some parents vat on their kids’ education is not going to get other people’s kids out of grinding poverty. It’s not enough. All kids should get a good education, a warm safe home and enough food to eat as standard. Successive governments choose to do little to help those children. Everyone shopping at aldi instead of Waitrose and putting the difference in spends to the food bank, won’t bring other families out of poverty.

If someone can’t afford to continue their private education for their dcs so they then send them to a state school then they will have more disposable income to spend on other things, they won’t give that money to state schools or donate it. So I don’t see how it will be a long term uplift to state school funding.

If you’re sneering at these people now think how you’ll feel when you’re doing the school run with them in their range rovers and going on about their luxury holidays at pick up that they can afford now their kids are in state 😁

Sorry to hear that, I did benefit hugely from 15 hours switching to 30 recently and being able to work during those years as was important to me. I think it will decrease again which might help more SAHP work.

I like the U.K. and I am aware some pay large amounts in tax. I’d quite like it if we didn’t try and push them all out. I don’t think it will help us or out dc at all. The tax burden is mammoth and will grow.

I have said it before on MN - if we move into state we will be able to afford a very, very nice house in the catchment areas of one of the outstanding comprehensive schools in Gloucestershire and the £££ a month that we save can go towards foreign holidays, tutoring, skiing, music lessons, house renovations, nicer cars, more hours for our cleaner, savings toward university tuition or husband might just cut back on work. Shame the taxpayer will have to fund Ds's schooling but at least a state school will look better when he is applying for university.

Coming soon: a thread complaining about the price of housing because all the private school parents who can no longer afford school fees have moved into the catchment areas for the best state schools.

@MindIfISlytherin yep! I will just ask which of them supported the VAT policy.

Loving the logic that if we just ban private schools we will suddenly turn into Finland 😀 because it's that simple!

Absolutely. Happens here now but will increase

We have loads of high rate tax payers where we live that don’t send their children to private school. Including ourselves, family members and close friends. That’s because we have really good state schools (not just one but a number). I wonder if one of the reasons we have good schools (Primary and Secondary) is because not many people send their children to private school. State schools really benefit from a mix of children from all different backgrounds. We don’t have grammar schools. We won’t be adversely affected by the closure of the private schools or by the parents moving overseas not that I think either will happen.

Surely if parents aren’t paying £1000’s for private school they’ll be spending that money elsewhere and contributing to our economy in better ways.

I genuinely believe most people will save the money and give to their children as house deposits. I know quite a few people who are already doing that as they got their children into grammar school.

@MindIfISlytherin that already happens. It's a huge thing in my part of the inner city, people meet their OH in the city, buy cute flats, send their kids to the local school and then towards the end of primary they all leave for the country! They aren't moving to private school but they aren't sending their kids to the local comp secondary either. Even though it's actually very well resourced and does well in ofsted. It's the idea of loads of rough, inner city kids touching their precious Ossian and Lyla's, they might even end up shagging one of them, god forbid!
So no it won't be my school the ex- private school parents rock up at, it'll be the smaller village schools. No one is taking their kids out of private and sending them to the inner city secondary.

If you can afford all that surely you can afford the VAT on school fees?

@CarrotJanice I am not telling you where we would go as that would start a silly argument and derail the thread. However, it is a country where there is not class tensions or based on a social class system like here. People do not rely mainly on the government benefits. The quality of life in terms of food and weather are much better. Education even when private is not consider a luxury let alone taxed.

We are lucky to have skills to be able to work on an globalised world. We also speak three languages. There is not perfect place but we would be compromising very little with the move. I hope the kids can complete secondary here but if needs must. We go before.

Kendodd - that is what we could afford if we weren't fuelling £££ every month to private school. We drive an 18 year old car and took our first foreign holiday this year since 2019 because we spend a fortune on school fees. Sure we could strip expenses back and I can go back to FT work but given KS will be planning other tax hikes and raids, it may become unaffordable. I keep googling houses in Chipping Campden or Bourton on the Water and reminding myself that it won't be so bad.

Damn right (I voted Remain).

Wow, you're giving all that up just so your children don't have to meet anyone poor. How ridiculous.

@BlurredEdges we need to pay for them too

Which means a huge tax burden

It makes no sense to drive payers away

A country without class divisions?

On a thread full of very, very silly claims, that one is impressive.

Where did I say private schooling is about not meeting poor people? What a ridiculous assumption that is very telling about your prejudices. It is about small classes, great teaching, incredible facilities and opportunities.