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!

‘I’ve moved my kids to prep school and there are more black, Asian and Chinese children than their outstanding Primary.’

This is true of DCs private secondary school. Very diverse. There are also many mixed raced children like my DCs.

Oh do stop trolling. Private schools here are £30,000 per year per child for a day rate, before the extras. You say you paid for your children (multiple) to attend private school, so had a spare £60,000 plus per year from your take home wages waitressing? Pull the other one! And no, not ‘anyone’ does have that kind of money available. FFS.

That's a very low cost private school, @lemonybiscuits.

As was the one the poster said cost £6k per annum.

The majority of parents at our school work in health care. So, they're saving people's lives, and working long hours, as well as paying a lot of tax.

Also, many parents who pay privately will still pay even if the price rises 20%. It’s not going to result in the collapse of the State school sector. Unlike the energy crisis, which is a real threat.

The fact that you’d vote against the only party that are likely to take this bunch of arseholes out of power just because you have to pay VAT on your private schooling is just astounding to me. You’d rather continue with this shower of shit who are on course to destroy millions of peoples lives so that you dont have to pay VAT. Jesus Christ. I have no words (that id not get banned for writing).

I could afford private school and am choosing not to (at present, maybe things will change by secondary). I don’t think VAT should apply as I don’t think it does to private medical. Wealth taxes would be a much fairer approach IMO.

I agree; the fact that many (most?) private schools have charitable status is something that definitely needs looking at. I get that scholarships could be considered 'charitable', but I don't believe that status should apply to the entire organisation.

what rubbish

What a load of bollocks.

20% is huge. Money is finite.

These people don't shit golden eggs, regardless of what you tell yourself.

Dd wouldn’t have survived in the state sector. Her interests lay elsewhere. Much to the shock of her peers parents who wondered how Dd would cope without a good degree behind her
Ds didn’t survive primary in the state sector with the adherence to the National curriculum trumping his need to learn to read.
Fix state schools before starting to penalise the private sector otherwise there will be a flood of pupils overloading an already broken system.

Not all things need money to fix. A different approach to education is what is needed not throwing money trying to make an unworkable system to work. Atm the education system doesn’t work for the majority (not even those who come out clutching their degree) let alone those that struggle

well said

The cheapest annual fees for the private school nearest to me are 17k a year. Assuming you worked a 60 hour week at £10 an hour that's about 30k a year net so for two boys you are still £4k+ short and presumably needed to eat and pay rent and must have had some additional income. I think that you can see that even 'lazy' people (care workers, nurses, warehouse workers etc) would never be able to afford private school (at least £34k + uniform, equipment, school trips) and that in reality it is a luxury beyond the reach of all but the wealthy.

I think there's probably enough professionals across all sectors and industries to blow your theory about only private school kids having a 'good' education out of the water. I've friends who've privately educated on of their kids and let's just say they're not exactly going to be setting the world alight with their towering intellect - an utter waste of somewhere in the region of two hundred grand. But, hey. it's their money!

But 20% is quite a big 'just' to have to pay to get rid of the Tories. It might mean having to really upset my children by moving them, which would be quite different from not putting them into private school in the first place (which I recognise was my choice and not some kind of right). My point is, am I really the fish that Labour wants to fry at the moment?

I pay just under £1k a month at senior school for Y10 and 11. There are very few extras unless you want to, never any pressure. Uniform is expensive for blazer and PE kit but it seems to last well and there is a 2nd hand shop. There are very few top 5% earners at the school, 25% of the kids have a specific additional need. Not all of the schools are £30k a year even though I know people on here would like to believe that.

To comment on the poster who said that the buildings would be used for state schools etc, I know of a private school that shut recently not too far from my area and its been bought by developers, won't be used for schooling that's for sure.

Labour for me then. Thanks for letting me know.

It's just fair OP. Private schools shouldn't be charities, it just isn't reflective of their actual function. Look at it the other way - for years you've been able to pay without VAT prices being passed on, which is a bonus, but there will come a time when that unfairness needs to be redressed.

Its fair to think it sucks when prices go up though.

I send my child to private school so I can work. I am a single Mum and far from rich. I make huge sacrifices ( i.e. we have zero luxuries) to pay for it because it's the only only way I can do my job as a one man band family. My alternative is to live of benefits. If VAT is added I'll have to remove her as the fees kill me as it is, and I won't be able to work. I am by far the only parent at my child's school who makes similar sacrifices. There are a few who are really wealthy and maybe it won't touch but they are few and far between. On the flip side, the school offers FREE places, not many but some, to disadvantaged children (like kids in foster care) which is an example of one of the charitable aspects. Another is children of Army families where one of the parents has been wounded severely or indeed lost their lives defending our country.

It will cripple the independent sector and force waves of children back into the state sector, which let's face it hasn't got the capacity. The government will be forced to fund all this and standards will only drop further in state schools. Labour like this policy because as this thread shows, people hate the ''rich'' and independent schools are synonymous with ''rich''

I hope people 'voting' for this realize that imposing Vat on 'not for profit' service providers opens a very dangerous precedent for other similarly exempt services.. for example...

All fees associated with vocational training, education and other connected services....

And....

Dental & healthcare services...
Loans, insurance....
Funeral services
Tv license
All prescription medicines, sanitary products, incontinence products and equipment like such as wheelchairs...

Be careful what you wish for...

But you also strop about the mess the Tories have created over the last decade, right? Poverty, cost of living, fuel prices, collapse of the pound. But Labour, heaven forbid they get in and you have to pay more money for a luxury you have chosen to pay for. And trying to compare it to rising mortgage costs - it isn’t the same. Paying for a home is a necessity, private education isn’t.

In truth, people who send their kids to private school are freeing up places in the state system and contributing to the economy. They should be given tax relief - not charged tax. This is the case in other European countries.

We sent our DC to private school. It was never our intention to do so, but we were seriously underwhelmed by the local state provision on offer. As mentioned upthread, it is a popular belief that those sending their kids to private school are wealthy but most parents make huge financial sacrifices to pay the fees and lead a somewhat pared down life style as a consequence. It is personal choice what people spend their money on, be it expensive cars/long haul holidays/big houses or private education.

Not quite as big as losing your house or not being able to feed your children though is it. Your disconnect to the reality of what people are actually facing is somewhat disgusting.

A lot of these schools are like luxury hotels. Stowe school has :

8 Rugby Pitches
7 Cricket Squares
Double floodlit astro
4 Football Pitches
8 Lane Athletics Track with comprehensive field event facilities
4 Badminton Courts
BHS highly commended Equestrian Centre including
a cross country course and a floodlit show jumping arena
3 Lacrosse Pitches
11 Lanes of turf cricket nets & 10 lanes of astro turf nets
3 Squash Courts
State of the art Gym
3 Fives Courts
25m Six Lane Competition Pool
Clay Pigeon Shooting Range
3 Netball Courts
27 Tennis Courts
12 Spinning Bikes

I think if I can pay VAT - which is a luxury tax - on my Mars bar, you can pay it on your private school . Whether you can afford it or not is your problem. Maybe they could just cut down on 20% of these facilities. It would still be very impressive,

Money to burn, no. Able to afford VAT on top? Yes I would have thought that would be affordable if you have enough income to pay the fees in the first place (and commit to paying those fees for the rest of your child's education-mentally commit anyway for the foreseeable future as you wouldn't want to be changing schools all the time if you had a choice in the matter). I had looked into private school fees (my boss said that private boarding school was the making of her now adult daughter, who has a VERY high paying job, lives in a multi million pound house and her own two DC go to private school - who wouldn't want that kind of financial security for their DC right!) but whilst we have some disposable income we don't have enough to cover fees, and even if we could scrape that it's not just fees it's uniform and if you don't want your DC feeling left out it's keeping up with the Jones's on top of that too in terms of gadgets, hobbies, holidays and stuff (I assume kids would want to have what their friends have - I did in state school the old fashionable trainers cliche lol - I suppose its the same in private school). Obviously everyone's income has its limits, but I would expect anyone who could afford to send their DC to a private school to be very comfortable indeed, and whilst be disgruntled at VAT I would think that they'd be able to afford it.