To think that what is happening to council housing will eventually happen to state education?

[Margerykemp]

Lots of people don't realise this but back in the 50s council housing was supposed to be for everyone, doctors, lawyers, plumbers, factory workers, everyone not just people in need. Just like the NHS. But lots of factors over the decades has left much social housing solely for those in greatest need. Now plans are to make it a temporary solution for those who pass a means test.

Is this education in 30-50 years time? A means test for access to state schools? Children being made to move school if their parents pay increases above a threshold?

The only certainty is that nothing will stay the same.

Unfortunately, Thatcher changed the rules in 1989 so that they were in favour of the Landlord, stating, at the time, that if you lived on a Council Estate, you were a criminal, then insisting that Local Authorities sell their stock to Housing Associations and give all monies, bar 28% to the government. This had the effect of rather fucking Local Authority Housing.
Personally, I'm with Krum, I think all housing should be LA housing.

It already IS the case for Further Education. Children of the poorest can access funds and/or full loans. Children of the wealthier (and by this I do not mean wealthy) cannot even borrow the amount they need to live and so their parents have to subsidise them or else they cannot go (thinking especially of Oxbridge and Medicine here where term time working is not an option for the student). I agree that this could creep down to sixth form education and then further.

no it won't as there aren't that many who educate privately in the UK. i agree that the nhs will go that way though

we dont have church of scotland schools like C O E schools churches dont own the land ,

you are right south private education is in the minority its only a small section of the UK who use private schools ,

local authority housing should be available for all many people will never be in a position to buy and they shouldnt have to live in private rented homes with all the insecurity it beings wondering if they will need to move on in 6 months no matter what their income is.

No i dont think anything like that will happen to schools

"schooling isn't compulsory- home education is legal"

Education to age 16 is compulsory. Location is optional. Whether that's home, a state school or a private school, I don't see there being a sudden rush to privately educate any time soon. Homes are valuable assets and home-ownership has long been the ambition of the majority.

I don't think education will go that way.

The housing situation is ridiculous though. The private rental system is just a joke. Things need to change but I can't see that happening anytime soon.

LAs need to get more housing. I do think that the houses that they do have should be prioritised for those most in need. If they aren't, where will people like me get housed? Private renting is not an option now. I've done it for years but now I am a single parent with no one suitable to co-sign I'm classed as benefit scum and no one will even look at me. I have never even been able to view a property. As soon as I mention HB no one is interested.

But the amount HB is paying for my 2 bed private rent they could afford 2 houses with the LA. it would save them so much more money in the long run I they cod house people themselves.

The NHS, council housing, public education etc. They will all drop to lower basic 'free' levels because they are only sustainable in a closed system where the people using them are the people who paid for them.

Now we have unrestricted movement in Europe/the world, having above average welfare systems etc just encourage people who didnt pay into them to come here and use them. They are thus unsustainable longterm. Britain is bleeding wealth at an astonishing rate.

Also - why should some people get subsidised housing at taxpayers expense when they can afford to rent privately like everyone else? Council houses should be for the most needy only, unless everyone can have a council house - and thats never going to happen.

Amic- why would a council take out a 20 or even a 30 year mortgage for something they plan to own and rent out forever. Recalculate with a lower interest rate and a much longer term and the sums add up. Also not everyone wants to or does live in London.

Well said schoolsnightmare

I don't know. It was wrong to sell off council homes, but then it was wrong to build them on the edges of towns creating ghettos. It would have been better to have small blocks of flats or the odd house dotted amongst all the other to support mixed housing and proper communities where there was something other than "the estate" to aspire to.

We looked hard for a state school for dd and thought we had found one (11 on). In our borough we couldn't find a school that offered triple science and two languages which was our minimum requirement. Our dd is bright but not in the 2% at the top to make applications to Tiffin/Nonsuch viable. The state did not appear to provide an acceptable or adequate standard of education. The present system of one size fits all does not work, does not support children and is wholly unacceptable especially where schools have no say on who will thrive in the environment they offer.

Our local hospitals are staffed by the rude, the unhelpful and are generally unpleasant. The medical care is great but the nursing, the admin, the healthcare assistants all seem to need lessons in the basics.

The present situation is neither viable nor acceptable but what we really don't need is more of the same. We need something better and which is fit for purpose on so many more levels.

How tired I get if hearing that the state system believes that one size fits all. It doesn't. One size fits all is, if anything, a mantra of capitalism gone bonkers, and has nothing to do with state education.

This government is clearly endorsing the public school model for a state school system. One of the first things that the government put forward was the policy of free schools. This unelected government is making massive changes to working tax credit, workers rights and public sector pay. They do not want you to rely on any form of state support and continually promote the model of competition in every single policy.

Nobody should rely on the state if they are able to rely on themselves. Everybody should expect to rely on themselves unless they are genuinely unable to work. Education has to begin to equip young people with the ability to work and the expectation that they will work. Remember the Leech Report - commissioned by a labour government.

It wont happen because paying for private education is so far out of reach for most familes.

What will happen is deregulation of the NHS so that the state provides funds to pay but any provider can offer a service. dont think this is is a good thing though

State support in my opinion comes in many forms, whether it is free education, social housing, nhs, child benefit. Yes, the welfare system needs reforming but at what cost? I have just been trying to ascertain what a colleague is able to claim who works at the playgroup I bookkeep for as she has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. She has worked there 10 years. No entitlement to SSP.

Jareth- the teaching unions will not be able to do anything. Once schools are mainly academies, and staff all on individual contracts, unions will no longer have collective bargaining power. Why else do you think the govt (this and the last) are so keen on academies programme?

Why should teachers be paid the same regardless of location? That penalises teachers in my area of the country where living costs and housing costs are very high. Only if living costs were identical regardless of location would identical salaries be a good idea. Is it 'fair' to penalise people who live in an expensive area of the country?

I think that the government should design some incentive for landlords to offer longer tenancies to families in work, local family connections or children in school. And introduce rent controls to match housing benefit allowances. I saw an item on yesterday's news where a lady with a job had been forced to move from Kensington to Dagenham, her daughter was at school doing exams this year and both of them now face a 2 hour+ commute to work and school.

If it's compulory then why have so many kids got NO school place at all this year cogito

without reading the thread.

It will happen if we let it happen.

we all pay for state education anyay, the same way we all pay for our health services.

It's called paying tax ffs