.. to think we should scrap private schools?

[katnyps]

How can we ever have an equal opportunities society when people with more money can pay for their children to have a better education?

I know that there are exceptions to the rule, and great teachers in publicly funded schools, but I get the impression that influential roles in society are disproportionately represented by people paid for education... or am I wrong about this too?

I believe that Finland has one of the best (internationally recognised) education system in the world and (apologies if I'm not quite right here, but broadly speaking) that it is actually illegal there to charge for education?

[quote SendHelp30]@toolazytothinkofausername a lot of private diagnosis aren’t recognised when assessing for EHCP and LA will use their own as well[/quote]
Private psychologists now assess in a way that it is recognised.

It is truly sickening.

Agree with above posters. I chose to send my children to a good state school but I tutor them privately. If you have money (and I work very hard for mine) you can invest it in a number of ways. I chose to invest this way and go without stuff that other parents would prioritise ie holidays.

@BoozeHound

Yes, totally agree, Ed milliband’s got a great podcast episode about this. The inequality and unfairness they create is staggering.

At the same time can we also scrap inadequate. unsupportive, lazy parents? If so much of a school's resources didn't go on controlling the uncontrollable there would be more money for the things that matter.

I really don’t think this is a good idea at all.

I don’t like the thought of all the rich privileged kids coming stealing precious state school places. Especially when their parents have the power to move wherever they like to get in to a good state school.

Keep ‘em where they belong!

Ds is in an independent (place funded by local authority) special school because no state school can provide what he needs.

Education as a purchase is vastly different from the purchase of houses, tutors, ect.

Such an original thought, OP! 😆

OP, so if your child is exceptional at something and is offered a bursary or scholarship at a top private school, I take it you'd say no out of principle?

@funinthesun19

I really don’t think this is a good idea at all.

I don’t like the thought of all the rich privileged kids coming stealing precious state school places. Especially when their parents have the power to move wherever they like to get in to a good state school.

Keep ‘em where they belong!

Sorry, their parents are paying taxes, so they are not “stealing” anything.

And no state school would take him. Tribunal not needed.

I really dislike these sort of dumbing down ideas, why not raise everything up?
I really feel we need more variety not less - more different types of school, not fewer and more targeted specialized types of school .

I think when you say "equal opportunity", you mean everyone has equally artificially limited opportunity.

I'd be interested to know what those who are in favour of scrapping private schools think about the two tiered system that we currently have in place, where by up to 50% of "key worker" children are in school receiving an education from a teacher and the rest are struggling to complete any work at all due to poor resources and/ or parents who are wfh unable to help them. Completely unequal and completely unfair in my opinion

They should lose their charitable status as they take the Mickey.... at least the ones round here do. Zero general public benefit.

@ComtesseDeSpair

Definitely need to scrap ability to buy choice in healthcare, utilities (clean water?), healthy food and education in my opinion.

Really? So there should be no private supermarkets? Everyone should be issued government tokens for a range of goods the government considers adequate, so we’re all equal? No private television and media packages? The government ensures we all receive the same mandated access so that we’re equal? No private healthcare? So if the government takes a decision - as all governments do - that a healthcare product such as IVF or cosmetic surgery or treatment with only a small likelihood of success isn't on offer via state healthcare, there shouldn’t be an option to pay for it yourself

Why have you left housing out? If it’s important we all receive equality in diet and healthcare, why should we all also have equal living conditions in a state-allocated flat?

I purposefully didn't include some things. Healthy food should be a human right, clean water and heat in winter should be a human right, education should be a human right and a certain level of healthcare should be a human right. A fancy flat and fancy food should not be. Neither should access to IVF or nose jobs. There is a major difference.

Our government has zero incentive to "raise everyone up" when they are doing just fine under the status quo. That is the problem.

Someone I know had to go to sendist Tribunal to get their child a place in a state school because the LA were content to leave the child with no school place for years. I think those not involved in sen education would find that unbelievable but there are thousands of children with sen without any school place.

55% of kids at my child’s school receive bursaries, 70 children receive 100% bursary. Scrapping the charitable status will take resources from those kids and will disadvantage them even more.

No government on Earth has been able to command equality into existence. Various Communist regimes have attempted it but, to date, none has succeeded. Some people are more intelligent than others, some have artistic talent, others see commercial opportunities: the factors that influence human outcomes most are nature and nurture, and nature/genetic inheritance is probably the more powerful.

These threads always talk about money as if it's the defining factor. My parents were impoverished intellectual types and we all did pretty well in school and in life, because although there were no skiing holidays or designer clothes, there was security, culture, conversation and constant stimulation.

Loads of kids don't have that, and the state can't realistically fill the gap. I'm in a decent job now and 'privileged', not because of my parents wealth as they had none, but because of the cultural wealth they provided.

You can't level up by removing stuff. Money isn't the only measure of inequality.

Sorry, their parents are paying taxes, so they are not “stealing” anything.

If private schools went away, there would be a lot of less privileged kids pushed even further down in terms of opportunities. Maybe “stealing” isn’t the right word in your book, but it would certainly feel that way. Hence why I think private schools should never be scrapped.

Tutor and a good state school is probably a better combination that private school.
Private school and tutors - the creme de la creme.....

A good tutor gets to know the child and can specifically target weak areas and expand on knowledge, even a private school cannot give that level of personal, bespoke coaching.

I have just got into tutors actually - when older DD was younger there was a real negative push against tutors. Now I think they are definitionly the way forward.

To add a positive note: there is a lot of work being done by universities, businesses and charities in helping schools address inequalities. Millions of pounds going into giving kids in deprived areas access to extra activities, lessons and resources.

Universities are legally bound to do this work by the Office for Students. It's a long slow process of change but changes are happening.

I don't feel a need to scrap private education in this context.

An aside on OP mentioning Finland- a country with 8% the population of the UK isn't comparable.

SiulaGrande

Yes and uni places for comp students are supposed to be leveled out and also grammars are providing out reach for students