To think that families who choose to home educate should receive government funding?

[PinkyU]

It costs the uk government(s) circa 75K to educate a child from 4/5-18.

AIBU to suggest that families who HE (home educate) should receive a percentage (50%-75%) of this to aid in their ability to provide learning opportunities for their child, given that it would still save the government money?

Do you think more families would HE if it seemed more financially viable?

I’m torn. I can see that part of the plethora of reasons school education exists in the format it does is to allow for (potentially) two adults to be working full time and paying tax, so the money saving aspect may fall down there.

From another perspective, accepting government involvement financially may come at the cost of government involvement concerning how and what the child should learn which is the antithesis of what HE seeks to do.

I do think that part funding HE would allow much more access to learning opportunities which would hugely benefit the child.

What do others think?

(Rambling over)

Perhaps if the funding was means tested, in the way the uniform grant or FSM is?

Still no, why would that be better?

Many good points.

I wonder if there was random auditing to prevent people from using the money for anything other than educational purposes? Keeping receipts from trips, textbook purchases etc?

I think the issue with allowing broad criterion to be met within education (as it is in schools) is that it doesn’t allow for the main ethos of HE, which is (primarily) child lead learning, a more diverse approach, learning materials and outcomes.

I would wonder why anyone would object to home educated children having their GCSEs and A level exams funded?
As for anything else I don't think it's a good idea.

@sirfredfredgeorge I was looking at it from the opposite of that assumption. That it would allow those who wish to HE the opportunity to do so.

I wouldn't object to some book tokens and exam fees being paid, because I don't think that's going to be critical in encouraging someone to HE for the wrong reasons, but that's completely different to the chunks of cash proposed in the OP.

No - but there should be a free national curriculum portal for home education.

So does this idea also mean that people who choose not to have children or just can’t have children should also get a tax rebate of £75k as they are not using the school system either?

I believe exams should be funded and access to online study - which I think has been greatly improved over the past year - provided as well.

But no it would be enormously costly for someone to wade through receipts and determine if they are educational or not, plus if that is paid for then surely DPs who take their DCs to say the science museum at the weekend should have that refunded as well.

@MrsHuntGeneNotJeremyObviously that’s a very pertinent point to make. There’s also the added bonus of schools, local authorities and the government being held to account with your scenario.

@Proudboomer I think my point is more that people who HE are paying for school education and then also experiencing the additional costs of HE their child, in effect (but not necessarily) paying twice to educate their child.

People who don’t have children aren’t incurring the (potential) double cost.

My friend’s school distributed devices (provided by the local authority) to poorer families in her school. In the second lockdown some of those parents put their name on the list for another laptop. When challenged they said the device had broken and they’d thrown it away! The local authority didn’t have the resources to chase it up. These parents don’t even get out of bed to take their primary school aged kids to school. They don’t care about them getting an education. My friend spent a lot of lockdown distributing school dinners to the kids because she knew they wouldn’t get fed. Those parents would gladly claim for home education but wouldn’t teach their kids anything..

@habibihabibi that would fall under imposed targets and criteria for learning though, which is usually not conducive to HE ethos.

YABU and I did HE one of ours , the govt provide an education if you choose to not avail yourself of that provision then you pay yourself .

@PinkyU the argument about double payment is the same for private education, but I don't expect a rebate because my child is privately educated.

The government provides a free education for all DCs. This is not the case in many countries, apart from scenarios where DCs are being bullied or have needs that don't sit well in a formal educational context, then my view is that DCs should be at school or following formal online education that can be tracked. I don't think we should be paying for Home Ed as well other than exams and online resources.

[quote PinkyU]@Proudboomer I think my point is more that people who HE are paying for school education and then also experiencing the additional costs of HE their child, in effect (but not necessarily) paying twice to educate their child.

People who don’t have children aren’t incurring the (potential) double cost.[/quote]
But the childless are also paying for something they don’t use. So in your argument the home educator is paying twice and the childless once so by that argument they should get something back even if not the full £75k quoted.

But this isn’t now society works as no one uses everything they pay for or I would be due a rebate as I don’t use the local library, park or council run leisure centres. We all pay the. It is up to us if we use it. Same as schools.

No! The majority of HE families do so for a plethora of good reasons, however a minority use it as a means of hiding their children from scrutiny. I fear that we would lose some highly vulnerable children if people were paid to not send their children to school.

Hi OP I think there's a balance to be struck.
We were left with no choice but to home educate our SEND child for almost two years now, due to schools being incompetent at delivering the specifics of EHCP provision/exclusionary and discriminatory practices.
I've battled for over 3 years, recently winning (if you can call it that) a complaint that was upheld on all points.
We produced extensive costs for the last two years which ran into many thousands and finally have had the compromise method of EOTAS granted. The LA now transfer funds to us to continue what we have been doing for ages, but it's life-changing in it's benefits for our child and household.
I don't think that the same applies to private education as that really represents parental choices, there are many throughout the UK who would love their children to attend full time school, but the reality is that parents to these children are left 100% to their own devices-it's only when you battle for months and years do you see a change.

HE isn't a choice for many it's a forced necessity, but the legal responsibility held by authorities shouldn't cease there, it's their failings that cause this and they should in my view be financially liable.

Ooh can I have a refund too. I privately educate 2 children so am paying twice for their education. £150k would help tonnes.

Didn't think so.

I think there should be online learning available for home educated kids to make sure those who are vulnerable don't fall through the gaps. I think they run a scheme like this in some parts of California, so it's free to home ed kids in that area, but if others want to use it they need to pay. I don't believe there should be cash incentives to home educate as it's so open to financial abuse. I do ultimately think that schools should be the best place to provide education, although there are often so many failures, particularly for kids that don't 'fit' which needs addressing urgently. I don't think throwing cash at home ed families is the answer. But fixing the problems within the system is.

I've paid about £1m in before tax income from 1987 to 2022 for 5 children at private nursery school, private primary, secondary school and university and post grad. I would rather like to get a cheque for £1m next week as my refund particularly as I have paid hundreds of thousands in tax.

I have also only seen a doctor for 7 minutes in the last 15 years despite paying vast sums to the NHS (20% of our income tax goes to the NHS), the NHS never being there for this family when we need it.

I am not holding my breath for either sadly.... I would much prefer a much smaller state and much lower taxes.

No I pay taxes to fund the school system if parents choose not to use it that's up to them.

If there are SEN involved then maybe. If not then no.

Should those that use private health care get a rebate then because they don’t use NHS?

I think my point is more that people who HE are paying for school education and then also experiencing the additional costs of HE their child, in effect (but not necessarily) paying twice to educate their child. unless their are special circumstances like SEN then that's their choice.

@doubleshotespresso what a fabulous point so well made.

I’m sorry you’ve had such an awful time, and more sorry that your dc has had to struggle so much. Congratulations on your “win”, I hope it helps provide what your dc needs.