Private Schools being able to hold charitable status

[IdiotCreatures]

I went and looked at a building associated with a local independent school yesterday, as it's always piqued my curiosity.
The school is run by the Woodard Corporation. I looked at their books on company house yesterday.
The amount of money moving through them is ridiculous. If people want to pay for a private education, then surely the institutions should be taxed.
Apart from a small number of scholarships, the average person is not benefiting from these institutions.
In the case of Eton, as pointed out on another thread, these schools are probably leading to damage to society and definitely do not promote the idea of equality.

Since Tories are highly unlikely to tax the schools their own DC are advantaged by, the only way is contextual offers at uni, taking into account education to Y11, not just sixth form.

@ElbowGreaseLightning same here. I’m stunned by the lack of critical thinking on this thread.
Many people seem to think that making state schools the ONLY option would force ‘them’ to improve.
Ignoring people buying privilege with expensive houses in catchment areas.
Ignoring private tutoring, homeschooling etc as a private option.

The same attitude has led to the new rules on landlords, which will be a spectacular own goal for the gov as many LL’s sell up and rental supplies restricted. Let’s just cut down the people we deem ‘privileged’, instead of fighting for more funding/provision for everyone.

@DomPerignon12 indeed, it's the same attitude as used in the 1960s - instead of improving the secondary moderns, they brought everything else down to their level.

DomPerignon

It’s called Tall Poppy Syndrome and you find it everywhere here in the UK.

Anyone who is deemed to have something that you don’t, usually house, salary, education is in the wrong and has acquired it by either inheriting it from some Lord or they’ve screwed over someone vulnerable to get it. Instead of working hard themselves, studying and taking risks, it’s far easier to demonise others and pull them back down and put them in their place.

Even at my independent school, the parents get their knickers in a twist over someone getting on the sports team instead of theirs, or someone getting an academic award. They and their DC aren’t prepared to work hard for anything.

I now realise that actually I am privileged. I’m privileged to have seen and experienced hardship when young. I’m privileged to have lived amongst other cultures and see how they value education. I’m privileged to witness the culture here in the UK where education is not valued and people let their DC fail. I’m privileged in that I can process all this and realise that if you want something, you have to work for it and grab education with both hands If I can’t send them to this school, I’ll still do the above. What I won’t do is sit here and whinge about what other people have got and how me and mine are held back by people better off than me, of which there are many.

"I know literally no-one in real life who would actually actively disadvantage their kid for a point of principle."

Then you are mixing with the wrong crowd @ChiselandBits . It's not a question of 'actively disadvantaging' your child, it's about not stealing for them an unfair advantage in relation to others. From that perspective, can you see that yours is an ideologically individualist position which disadvantages the rest of society?

Great post elbow grease.
Ddgraigh

Totally agree.

As we can see some poster's actually don't care about people with literacy issue's filling up prison's,or a lack of Sen provision (unless they can drag out funding issue's/of Which in agree there are issues but aren't the whole issue!).

It's not a good political soundbite.

Winter enough of society is already disadvantaged without private education going anywhere near it.

They have been are still being failed in crap comps, which by now should be slick highly functional places to give each child their best shot.

@WinterDeWinter let me introduce myself. Did the rounds of private schools because we could absolutely afford it (oh the hard graft and sacrifice 😂). But decided it wasn't for us. Two super bright DC, with educated parents (one Oxbridge and PhD, me just a mere Masters). And we felt they didn't need an extra leg up because of all that cultural capital behind them (although at the time I didn't have a label for it!). Moreover we wanted them at school in their community, rubbing shoulders with all levels. Fortunately this terrible child anise we inflicted did no harm. They got a Cambridge and Durham degree and satisfying jobs out of it.

Have some faith in your DC!!

The thing is we are a society that balances the common good with individual freedom. You’re working with the assumption that parents have a moral duty, beyond legal duty (taxes) to support state schools by sending their children to them. They don’t. The primary responsibility of a parent is to their own child, no one else’s, and most won’t deny their children opportunities because others don’t have access to them.

Removing charitable status is going to have the impact of making private schools even more ‘elitist’. Those who would have benefited from bursaries, or those whose parents could only just afford it, are going to lose out.

Jeremy Corbin, is that you?

I know literally no-one in real life who would actually actively disadvantage their kid for a point of principle.

Wasn't that the reason for Jeremy Corbyn's second divorce? His then wife wanted to send the kids to grammar school whereas he refused on principle.

@ElbowGreaseLightning who me?
That's funny...!

It was for Winter

Not quite sure why aimed at me? This is what I am advocating for.

You think because there are bad things in the world, other bad things are ok?

I'm not sure either @WinterDeWinter. It was intended for @ChiselandBits. Apologies

All your remarks are built on the assumption that children in private schools have no other disadvantages. And if that isn’t evidence of a screaming case of privilege I don’t know what is.
I could have sent my son to a school which refused to accommodate the provision we wanted to put in place for him (which was working); which had no effective plan to stop bullying of ASD kids; which did not provide any of the aspects of the curriculum he is talented at. I had better options and I took them. I suppose if you are a particular sort of person you’d call that selfish; but that sort of person isn’t the kind I’m bothered about.

Don't forget that private schools in France are nothing like UK private schools. Most are religious, and don't offer the small classes or extra curricular activities that private school parents pay for in the UK.

@TullyApplebottom I think I said unilaterally somewhere at the beginning that I can see that SEN puts things in a different light.

I'm speaking of the vast majority of private school pupils who are not in that group.

You said that, then proceeded to rant about selfishness taking no account at all of any parents natural desire to do the best for their child taking account of their needs.
I don’t know why you want to assume the worst about peoples motives. Seems a rather depressing way to look at life

Well, the society we live in is pretty depressing. I would like it to change. I would like this kind of thing to be seen as the trampling over others for the lifeboats that it is.

I'd like global and local inequality to change, but I don't think it's best achieved by closing down schools or institutions that are not failing.

New ideas are needed. Where I am, private school for senior is less than the extra house price costs - less selfish because you've paid through your house price and not school fees?

In fact it's more selfish as you may get the house price back when you sell on to other well heeled parents.

And yet so many feel that is more virtuous.

Sorry - just to add @TullyApplebottom - a motive doesn't become magically morally unimpeachable because it involves one's child. Many selfish people are also parents.

I argue, in fact, that a principle cause of entrenched inequality is precisely that selfish people have children.

I agree that catchments are not the solution in cities, because they can be gamed by cunts. A lottery would work better.

Why do you get to arbitrate on the purity of peoples motives? Who died and made you god?
I mean, to me you look like a crazy ranter who expects people to make decisions about their kids based on your wholly unsubstantiated assertions about how much better things would be if we only did as you told us. Why would I listen to you any more than I listen to the bloke on a street with a sandwich board proclaiming the end of the world us nigh?