it's daft to think parents with kids in private school have money to burn?

[Popgoestheweaselagain]

Just got asked by my school what would be the impact if they had to pay VAT, adding 20% to fees. My response was 'I'd try to keep my child in the school, but ....'. I think almost all parents would respond this way. Alarmed, did a quick google, and found this is Labour policy. Next time they come knocking at my door looking for my vote, I'll be telling them why they can't have it!

Now, I understand why some people are ideologically opposed to private schools, the unfariness etc. But when I hear this argument that goes something like 'Those people must have loads of money because they send their kids to private school' it kind of annoys me. Money is finite. If you've spent all your money on school fees, you obviously don't have it anymore!

How would it redress the balance? All it would achieve is taking out the ones who can just about afford it and putting them in the state sector.

So under your system the state would define what those professions and courses are and then rest are luxuries? Would you have a quota for numbers on the courses, strict annual limit for those specific courses and then restrict those people from emigrating? Anything else is just an option, a luxury yes?

Do we need degrees in history for instance? Perhaps that is a luxury? What about degrees in golf course design? Or hospitality management?

You mean the "public" school system. Most private schools are nothing of the sort, and have no links or networks.

If all rich people had to send their kids to state school they wouldn’t be so accepting of all of the cuts that keep being made to state schools

@Shamoo how would these rich people actually prevent cuts being made?
What about the rich people who send their children to state school because they disapprove of private education? Why aren’t they not accepting the cuts?
Or are rich state school parents somehow less influential than rich private school parents?

School fees are going to go up significantly, anyway. Otherwise, private schools will see a massive reduction in their profit margins. Everything costs so much more now that inevitably that cost will be passed on to the consumer.

There will always be the Uber rich who send their kids to schools like Eton.

I think we are going to see a big reduction in middle class parents using independent schools.

Well thank fuck most are classed as charities!

labour wont push it too hard IF they get in as most of their kids go to private

For all the people stating that the current abysmal Tory government is a poor advert for private education, please bear in mind that May and Truss (and Thatcher) were all state educated. Jeremy Corbyn wasn't (at primary level) and Tony Blair went to a public school.

Many decades ago parents in England were not given any choice about which state school their child would attend. The Local Education Authority told them which school they'd been allocated. It wasn't popular, as even then some schools were doing better than others, and over the years parental 'choice' (misleading term, preference is all it's ever been, as it's never guaranteed you get your choice) has been touted by politicians as a great way to put pressure on schools to improve.

It's a long time since my children were at school but in our area which schools to apply for was a huge preoccupation for the better off, better educated families. The schools they avoided got steadily worse, inevitably. House prices around the more popular schools rocketed. Many families moved away or found religion or turned their 11yos into commuters, sending them off to the outer London boroughs with grammar schools.

I wonder how many of the vehemently anti-private schools posters would feel differently if they were no longer able to do any of the above to get their children into a 'good' school. Or if they were banned from paying for extra tuition, extra-curricular activities, or anything else that gives children an advantage over their peers.

Oh do behave 🙄

Nearly all children who go to private school have parents who are in the top 5% of income. They have had a significant tax break. Just save it and put it towards these costs when Labour get in.

If all 620,000 privately educated children went to state schools at £6k a year that would cost the government £3,720,000 which is absolute peanuts in terms of the national budget. Education in the UK is circa £100,000,000,000.

So you would rather I didnt pay for private education and then the state would have fewer resources? Explain how that benefits my child or any other children? Im not seeing the logic here.

Utter rubbish

labour wont push it too hard IF they get in as most of their kids go to private

fluffinsalad which Labour MPs send their children to private school?
This is a genuine question because I remember the fuss that was made when Diane Abbott sent her son to private school and so I’m surprised that there hasn’t been more publicity about other Labour MPs doing the same.

It is your choice. Why should we care how you as an individual decide to spend your money. This is a capitalist society. Spend it on what you want.

But then why tax something that provides a benefit to your children as well as mine?

On the off chance this isn't a troll post. The cost would be £3.7 billion (not million).

And the total cost of education is around £42 billion.

Somehow we did manage to have state-subsidised HE in the past without annihilating the humanities. Unfortunately we had a horrifically unequal primary and secondary education system and no control over selection so prejudice and privilege was rampant. I feel we could probably bring back the former whilst improving on the latter, don't you?

Then why should we care if your state school is shit....

Private school in London are about £30.000 per year.

Are they going to put VAT onto university fees as well?
education is education be it for little Tarquin in his private school or John learning Astro physics at university.
what about nurseries that’s another educational institution. If their fees had VAT added it would mean people would have to look long and hard at the costs compared to what they can earn while the children are there.

A report undertaken by the Independent Schools Council in 2018 put the percentage of pupils dropping out of private education after Vat on fees being introduced at 17%. I would say £6 per 17% of pupils compared with 20% fees on the rest, we would still make money out of putting VAT on school fees. And it’s the right thing to do. So it ought to go ahead.

Private school parents potentially having to pay 20% more on their child’s school fees doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I honestly couldn’t care less.

I care about the elderly and vulnerable who will struggle to heat their home over winter, I care about children in homes that can’t afford enough room.

I couldn’t muster even one iota of a fuck about private schools charging VAT.

The better question is why should they be tax exempt??

25% of secondary children in Edinburgh go to fee paying schools. I'm sure Edinburgh Council will be delighted if its secondary school population increases by 1/3.

£6k!

As you care anyway…..