Abolishing private schools - how would it work in practice?

[Dongdingdong]

Labour has voted to abolish private schools:

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-public-private-school-abolish-eton-vote-conference-corbyn-education-policy-a9115766.html

Whether you agree with this or not, I don’t understand how the logistics would work. Would private schools suddenly cease to exist from say, summer 2023, with all pupils forced to find a place at the local state school for the autumn term onwards? What would happen to the buildings and facilities - would they remain as state schools or be sold off to developers for example?

It’s student politics on steroids. Do these people not live in the real world?

Oh he is now bitching about the middle class. Major chip on shoulder then.

What about all the army children who are at residential schools? Where will they go?

Take off their charitable status unless they actually do something for it.

Oh and only 7% of pupils are privately educated- it's hardly going to cripple the system
I live in an area of London where quite a lot of kids go to private school, the state schools are good but massively oversubscribed (to get in to some schools you need to live less than 0.2 miles from the school) add those kids from private schools in to the state system & this area would have a huge issue with lack of school places.

"They don't pay vat because of their charitable status, nothing at all to do with the EU whatsoever, Tory Phillip Hammond had plans to put VAT on private school fees."

a) thos is simply not true, and I refer you to VAT notice 701/30
b) Hammond did not propose to put VAT on school fees, but to end the charitable exemption on the business activities of the school. This proposal was dropped

jewel I’m far from being an expert on the subject, just general vague layman’s knowledge. But my understanding is that for any charity, if it closes or loses charity status, their assets also have to be sold, or iirc can be donated towards another registered charity. So the school couldn’t just keep running as a private business in the now disbanded charities building. They’d have to buy the building and assets from the charity to do so, something even the wealthiest schools are going to struggle with.

I suppose you could change the law to allow an exception to remove charitable status from schools without needing to remove the assets, but it would be a legal mine field, especially as quite a few were originally bequeathed land, money, buildings, not to mention current donations, so any law would essentially be reversing old gifts and ancient wills which would be a huge can of worms. It wouldn’t just be voting a motion through the commons.

And if they were simply abolished, any plan to seize the assets would run into the same legal mine field.

Tbh he’s only proposing it because like most things, he’s never going to have to follow through.

Not all private schools are a charity, many are run as businesses, more each year are moving to business status rather charity

"What about all the army children who are at residential schools? Where will they go?"

They will have to go to state boarding school (as some already do), which would mean a need for a significant expansion in that sector. Has anyone seen a plan for how they would bring that about in a timely fashion?

So he is now whinging about kids going to state school not getting a decent education. He is a prize tit. Figures out how to motivate kids to work - and doesn’t tell everyone that they should go to uni. Just put money into schools without demanding parents foot the bill.

It will never happen the books will not balance.

You ban private schools, you'd force people down the route of home education. Private tutors and the like that becomes impossible to regulate.
Banning private schools would also close International schools, which will mainly be the children of big business people, close the school, businesses can't attract staff, they in turn will move offices to other countries.
I imagine that some of the top boarding schools must attract an element of overseas children, those parents will go elsewhere that will be more money lost to the local economy.

I believe some military personnel prefer their children to attend boarding schools for the stability that they offer. Again what would happen with those children?

And last but not least can you imagine the security implications for certain high profile children attending the local High School.

The whole thing is a non starter. Could be Labour don't want to be the party that signs the final Brexit deal so they are throwing some really daft policies into the ring.

Similar to Shami Chakrabati, her son attends a selective independent but she was very vocal in her objections to selective education. Very much that some are more equal than others.

Indeed. Their hypocrisy knows no bounds...

I would applaud any party that invests more in education.
However, I don’t really understand how closing private schools will help achieve this. For me, it’s hard left politics limiting choice and free market. If I choose to spend my money on a private education for my kids rather than expensive holiday etc, that’s my decision.
If however we had a better state system more parents would make the choice to come out of the private system.
I really am stuck in the political middle ground between the hard right conservative and hard left labour. I don’t think I can vote for either!

"more each year are moving to business status rather charity"

Not really - the law does not usually permit the transfer of charitable funds and assets to private ownership (and there would be stiff opposition from the charitable sector as it really is a charter for abuse). Normally you have to wind up charity if it ceases to qualify as a charity, and all property and major assets must be sold off at proper market values, and all the revenue donated to a similarly-aimed charity.

A handful of schools have been reported to have changed status, but I haven't seen how that was achieved.

I don’t think I can vote for either!

Welcome to the club.....

So teachers (so the bloke on the radio) will be ‘Integrated into the state sector’. Nope I suspect a lot will leave the industry or go aboard.

He doesn’t believe that foreign students will stop coming over to the uk - oh yes they can still come and be charged. Yesssss. So foreign parents will send their kids to the uk to go to a state school? This man supposedly helped draft this plan yet he doesn’t understand the real world.

Even a momentum /Corbyn loving relative said ‘ffs what a load of crap!’. Said relative is pushing hard to get his kids into a local grammar school (which has feed - not sure how that works).

This man supposedly helped draft this plan yet he doesn’t understand the real world.

This shining example of a room-temperature IQ must be what passes for an intellectual in today’s Labour Party...

He is rather Ranty. My dad was involved in local Labour Party - educated in the ‘finest’ (haha) state school in the arse end of Glasgow, worked his arse off, entered Glasgow university, has his own business, alongside other local businessmen who believed in socialism and fair society. Not jealousy and envy.

I just don’t understand their reasoning. Surely they should be concentrating on making state schools as well resourced with as good a teachers with high aspirations for the students as private schools in the majority have. Perhaps stop them being run as charities but I’m all for choice. I’d like the choice of a good state school in my area instead of the crap that we have

I have no idea who to vote for, not sure which party represents my middle of the road views- perhaps Lib Dem’s but even them I am not 100% sure of.

I think this country is heading downhill rapidly and I worry for the future. For the first time ever, I am seriously looking at employment opportunities abroad. I’m lucky enough to have an internationally recognised set of qualifications and a profession (currently) in demand elsewhere. I would worry about leaving parents behind, of course. But still, I have begun looking at options/processes. And I know I am not the only one of my colleagues or in my friendship group who feels this way.

F off Corbyn. You come across as a jealous little weasel.

Thank God for the children who are privately educated. This takes a bit of financial pressure of state education budget

He also wants to allow tenants the right to buy the home they rent from the LL in a compulsory purchase scheme. How the tenant will get a mortgage who knows maybe from the bank of Corbyn. But why does he think tenants want to buy the home they rent?

Same for Public schools.

The man is a communist. Unelectable.

Didn’t he grow up in a very large fancy house, comrades? And go to grammar school, brothers?

I haven't RTFT, but the only way they could do this would be to compulsorily purchase the private schools and just convert them to state run.

They would have to abolish TUPE, otherwise the staff in those schools would continue to be better paid than teachers in existing state schools. That would go down well !

Dobby, you'll remember that enabling tenants to buy their rented homes, at heavily discounted prices, was a Tory invention, and a great votewinner for them.

Has it suddenly become wrong?