High earners should be charged for state schools!

[RawCoconutMacaroon]

BBC report this morning carries the suggestion from Dr Anthony Seldon, head of the private Wellington College, that parents with a family income of £80k should pay for state school places.

WTAF? Kind of ignoring the fact that it is ONLY people on fairly high incomes who actually pay enough tax to cover the cost of their child/children's state school place (roughly £4500 per year per child). Yes of course tax is collected according to an ability to pay and then distributed so all benefit from "free" education, which is right and proper...

BUT he thinks people who are already paying a lot in tax should effectively be penalised and charged again for their child's place at state school! Although maybe he's coming from the POV that if high income parents have to pay for state school, they will be more likely to pay out for their child to go to his private school.

Ridiculous

Bloody ridiculous. They ARE paying!

silly man.

what would happen would be theyd likely decide that if they had to pay either way, theyd choose a private school. Or youd get a two tier system of state ed.

This is a crazy idea.

If we want a better educated population we need better government-funded education for all. We can discuss how this should be achieved forever, but what is for sure is that means-tested access to state education is not going to achieve anything at all.

I do wonder when the British public will realise that if you want good public services you have to pay higher taxes for them.

Everyone wants the best but no one ever wants to pay for it

Aaarrrggghhh! State education must be free for everyone. He needs to butt out and stick with his own school. They already do pay through taxes as you say. Maybe his numbers have dropped and he thinks more richer people will choose private if they have to pay for state too.

What's next charging for the use of the NHS.

Seldon is a 'Tony crony'

Watch out for this in the Labour manifesto.

ha! read the thread title and was composing my WTAF response ! Yes idiotic idea but not surprising. Seldon is a media whore who has all sorts of batshit ideas. DH has met him and says he is "odd" to say the least. I work in the private sector and have no issue with schools such as his BUT I don't think he is well placed to comment on the state system or what 'all' private schools should do as there is vast difference between Wellington and most of the normal fee paying schools in terms of the cash they have available to do anything that run their own establishments. Also in the SE earning upward of 80k doesn't mean you have shitloads of cash. MAny people I know earn that or more but pay £££ in mortgage payments so they can live near the good state schools.

Jaynebxl, yy, state education must remain free for everyone.

I don't think that education needs to cost more to be better.

I think that (much) better educated teachers would go a long way to improving the quality of education in the UK. Our teachers are some of the least and worst educated in the developed world.

Yes, as long as the government gives a tax return if your children attend a private school. I am up for it!

what would happen would be theyd likely decide that if they had to pay either way, theyd choose a private school. Or youd get a two tier system of state ed.

That's exactly what they want to happen.

How are they going to work out which are the good schools parents will have to pay for and which will be the free rubbish schools? The quality of education in any one school can change very quickly.

Surely if they start doing this they will continue to lower the bar until we are all expected to pay for it except those on benefits. If we are expected to pay for a state education does that mean we can take them on holiday during term time or will that still be off limits and will you get a discount if you have a child that is in hospital long term and you are not using the services that we are paying for

That would work wouldn't it..We would have affluent areas with very well funded schools and then the poor areas with the reverse....

Legally children need to be send to school or home education... most families on over 80k have 2 parents working so are forced to pay to send there kids to school....Wrong , wrong, wrong

I think this is up there with the stupid ideas

Enian, but of course, that wouldn't happen! No chance of you getting your tax (already paid) back in the form of vouchers.

If you read the article on the BBC website you will see he is saying wealthier parents should pay for the most popular state schools.

"We have to end this unfair farce whereby middle-class parents dominate the best schools, when they could afford to pay and even boast of their moral superiority in using the state system when all they are doing is squeezing the poor from the best schools"

If you Live near a better school you have paid more for your home too. We don't earn anywhere near 80k but it's crackers.

Umm, I am in that salary bracket but we live in central London and couldn't afford school fees despite having a high income.

Plus we pay a fuck of a lot of taxes (which we don't mind at all btw).

Coconut macaroon isn't that kind of what happens if someone working gets tax credits?

Ridiculous idea.

When are they going to start teaching basic economics to these nutters?

Monkeysox, we had 3 kids at a private school at one point and no, DH did not get any tax credits back.

Rusty, how long before "charging for best schools" becomes "means tested" for all state schools? Thin end of the wedge once you start charging IMO

We have that income. In that circumstance we would just go private.