AIBU to feel that the ‘Labour against Private Schools’ campaign is a scapegoat for a lack of vision for educational reform?

[BusyMum1978]

2500 UK independent schools with 615K children attending which is 7% of the population of children in FT education up to the age of 16. A number of articles published this week have highlighted the campaign supported by Labour MP’s, who are calling for a number of measures impacting Independent Schools including their complete abolishment, and for these schools to become part of the state school system. A real hatred seems to be forming, and it feels to me like an easy smoke screen to put up rather than the Labour Party providing very specific policies to show how state funded education will be reformed.

I completely understand the feeling behind the imminent appointment of our 20th Etonian PM - there is urgent reform required in politics to have equal representation which I wholeheartedly agree with. I also understand the recently published stats showing accelerated social mobility for those attending top independent schools. I am not saying that there aren’t areas for improvement- but is the objective to bring more children up, or to bring the independently educated 7% down to make it ‘fair’?

My children both attend a prep school, and they are the first generation in both mine and my husband’s family to do so. We aren’t rich, neither of us have a degree, we own one property. We have -and continue to- work hard and made a choice to invest in our children’s education. We know we are privileged to be able to do so. To hear that MP’s want to wage a ‘class war’ with a family like mine feels inflammatory and yet more decisiveness in an already fractured country.

My children started their education in a state primary school but quite honestly it wasn’t good enough, and our heads were turned by what the private sector had to offer.

It equally broke my heart and inspired me to read The Times article on The Willow in Broadwater Farm school. Schools like this desperately need funding and further support, as do a range of children’s services which were cut during austerity. However will abolishing independent schools help a school like this? Parents who have money will still gravitate to the best areas / schools, and get tutors etc. There are a large number of selective state secondary schools that require heavy tutoring to access.

We need to nurture brilliant young minds in this country, to plug the UK skills gap, and compete in a global market. The independent sector has a valuable role to play.

Progress and globalisation is happening at such a rate that it’s becoming a bit uncomfortable. Many jobs our children will do haven’t even been invented yet.

The independent schools could work more closely with the state sector, but it concerns me that this campaign is chasing an ideal, and if successful would just shift the problem elsewhere.

This doesn't even come from the party, its a few activists.

The thing about nepotism and private schools is that I think that there is a fundamental difference between private and public schools.
If private schools were to be abolished, there would still be nepotism as it is often the parents in public schools who have the links.
Even if children ended up in secondary state schools, there parents would still have the money for housing in the 'better' areas, the money for tutoring and the contacts to help their children post uni.

Well, they include Labour MPs and are called Labour Against Private Schools, so I'm going with the crazy idea that they are allied with the Labour Party.

I agree needsmorespace, there is no point doing this. But reform of the tax rules would be better. Even better, reversing funding cuts to state schools

I think they mean public schools as well needmorespace

Eton is a public school. It is also an independent school.

They might be alied with the Labour party, but as I sais there are a whole load of tory party MPs and members who have views and support things that will never be party policy.

A third of tory MPs support bringing back the death penalty.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/almost-third-tory-mps-support-14721861.amp

Quote from Laura Pidcock on Wiki: ""From a very, very young age I was taught to see everything through a political lens and through a class lens""

Sounds about right ...

So what? We do have classes in this country, and there is class privilege.

there would still be nepotism

That’s no reason to do nothing to tackle it.

My FB is swamped with Labour for EU/Europe/PV etc etc none of which is Labour policy.

Return of death penalty will happen and soon.

Its hard to tackle nepotism though.

However what's interesting about this thread is the acknowledgement that children of well to do parents do better not because of their own efforts solely, but because of unearned priveleges.

The same people who are admitting this are the ones that blame the poor for being poor.

The cognitive dissonance is amazing.

I am pretty certain that this is merely a small campaign and It does not appear to have the backing of the Shadow education team or shadow schools minister,

Nothing to see, It is not policy.

The same people who are admitting this are the ones that blame the poor for being poor.
Who on this thread is blaming the poor for being poor?

Not in this thread, on previous ones.

I’m strongly against this.

We are both working class, earn only average wages and we choose to live in cheap housing so we can afford the fees for our two to go to private school.

My state education was reasonable until 14 and the school I went to after that was bloody rubbish.

I they abolish private school I will be removing them both from formal education and hiring a tutor.

30 kids to 1 teacher is not acceptable.

I'll take things that never happened for 10, bob.

People with wealth will just educate their kids abroad. Middle class families on the lower end however will fund that they will have to pull out their kids or pay for more tutoring

IF labour introduced this policy it would be done over a decade plus, none of you working class parents on average salaries, paying 30k per year for your 2 children need worry!

Yeah all these people with net incomes of about 45k spending 30k on private education.

Must dirt cheap housing if you can house, clothe and feed a family of 3 on 15k. (

Even if you are only paying 10k each, thats still only leaving 1600 for all bills.

Righhht.

Thanks so much for the huge number of replies I have just been reading through. In my original post, I felt that this campaign was acting as a scapegoat for a lack of vision for the reform of education. Since I posted I have been trying to find the vision that underpins Labour's campaign to abolish Independent schools i.e where is the strategy that would replace it. I haven't been able to find it. I appreciate that the campaign has been generated by 3 teachers, but there are MP's backing it and they want to get support at the next Labour Party Conference - so I would assume they would have some idea? There are estimates that it could cost the government up to £7.8m p.a to achieve a full abolishment - so I think it's unlikely to happen, and perhaps they are going in hard so that something in the middle is achieved. I find it disappointing from reading on-line interviews with founders / supporters of the campaign, that it's based on a sentiment of bringing the children in Independent schools down a level rather than bringing the state schools up. There has been a swipe at the England Cricket Team today because 43% of cricketers come from Independent schools - so I get that this isn't ideal BUT isn't the answer to change the curriculum to drive more sport into schools rather than get rid of a system that is producing excellent sports men and women? - Change the curriculum to drive more sports and the arts - Smaller schools - Smaller class sizes - Collaborate with the Independent Sector for places, knowledge transfer and shared facilities. I think we need to have the debate but stirring up hatred and them v us with Eton (who incidentally have 80 children currently paying no fees) as the posterchild will just cause more division. I wish those who are having the Twitter spat would just sit around the table and come up with a workable solution - but that doesn't seem to be the nature of politics!

A group want it to happen, it isn't party policy. There are Tory groups who eant all sorts. It won't happen.

I would have agreed 10 years ago, but politics seems so volatile and polarized these days...

i know of people who on paper claim to earn just a small basic amount for tax purposes but quietly or not so quietly have their funds securely tax sheltered and have closer to 7 figure incomes...so "claiming" to know someones income or even the income reported isn't an accurate reflection of a persons income who chooses to send their child to an independent school.
i'm another who firmly believes that with our without independent school options the same children (who would or currently are) attending independent would still do very well. be it the parents level of education, food choices, out of school activities etc etc etc.
there will always be a way to stand out cv wise. if it's not going to be based on primary or secondary school it will be extra curricular/travel/languages or colleges and uni's.

This is straightforwardly fascist

Quite possibly, which is why it’s unlikely to happen via a legislative route. It’s almost impossible to legislate for. The only way for a government to abolish private schooling is to make state education so attractive that no-one wants private education. There are also stick methods of course, such as telling universities receiving funding that they have to allocate undergrad places on a proportional ratio, or taking charitable status away which reduces affordability. Let’s see.

@BusyMum1978

the vision that underpins Labour’s campaign to abolish private schools is whipping up the politics of envy and resentment. Similar to the attitude that demonises private landlords, the rich ( anyone earning 10% more than me) etc etc.

I'm all for taking away charitable status, unless schools can actively prove that they are spending significant amounts on charity. 3 percent of Eton students get a full ride.

Not really a charity.