Reconsidering private education/labour gov

[Bluevelvetcake2]

As it looks increasingly likely that we will have a Labour government at some point, I’m wondering if anyone who was considering private education for their children is now re-considering it? We have put down a deposit for a prep school we really like which we could comfortably afford at the moment but not with significant fee increases. Just wondering if anyone else has concerns along the same lines and if so what are you thinking…

God I hope they do. It's actually disgusting that they pretend to be charitable.

Personally I prefer my DC hanging out with their school friends from all walks of life instead of vile people like Boris Johnson or Kwasi Kwarteng or Jacob Reece Mogg or ...

Well, education! The existence of elite schools has not noticeably improved the standards in state schools. How are state schools supposed to improve on increasingly limited budgets anyway? Public/private sector competition is not fair competition. Not saying that I’m in favour of removing charity statuses here (without seriously major investment in the state sector I suspect it would only squeeze the state schools further) but I don’t think education can be thought of purely along market economics lines. We will always need state schools, and most people don’t get a choice about going to one.

This.

@BobLoblawsLawBlogBlogsBobLoblawsLaws Finland has private schools. It’s a social media myth that they were “abolished”. About 3% of children are educated in private schools in Finland.

No, because schools may start to be properly funded.

How would closing private schools benefit the state school sector? Genuine question.

It sounds as if things are very tight for you, so I wouldn't risk it in your situation.

I think it sounds as if the OP and others are struggling anyway if charitable status is a deal breaker.
Maybe it's just easier to blame Labour?

If Labour get in you ,why not even need private education.

They actually fund education.

But I do think they will and should remove charity status on private schools.

It will stop producing terrible self serving politicians that don't fund state education properly. And whom are so out of touch with normal people that they keep on making policies that harm the most vulnerable. It will also help in dismantling the class divide.

The one thing they will not happen is the closure of any of the schools from which are drawn the current crop of conservative politicians. On the contrary, they will become even more outlying and elitist, with an even stronger hold on uk institutions sadly.

If Labour want to raise money for the Education sector, then surely the answer is to require payment in some form from the wealthier parents who use State Education.

Why not penalise richer parents who milk the system by leaving their children in State Education instead of paying for private?

LOL, this is a hilarious comment.

signed, someone whose entire secondary education was under the Labour government.

My entire secondary education was under the subsequent Conservative government, and that got increasingly shite as it went along.

Possibly they don’t want to send their children to private schools because they don’t want the kind of children who sometimes emerge from these establishments. Is that milking the state or is it exercising free choice in a market?

Besides, I think the idea is to encourage pushy parents of middle class children INTO the state sector because they will lobby to keep standards high.

Well most of them aren't as prejudiced and othering as the sort of person that labels children solely because of their school and labels middle class parents as 'pushy'.

That sort of person is just an idiot who falls for the politics of envy.

Agreed. For us, private seems the only viable option for our high functioning autistic daughter. There's no way she can thrive and be happy in a class of 25 plus children - the noise and bustle will be too much for her. Support in the state system for academically able, high functioning autistic children is virtually non existent.

We are not going to have a 2nd child, in part to be able to afford private education for our daughter. We would be gutted to be priced out of that.

Oh give over. Nothing wrong with being pushy anyway, those kinds of people get shit done.

Don't you mean it will mean more pressure on governments to fund schools properly because more middle/high earners will have to use normal schools and those people will help pressure the government? In this day and age no one should have to consider private education.

How will they pressure Government exactly? By voting?

Then they will simply vote for whichever party doesn't try to tax private school fees. Or put pressure on them to abolish fees, if it is that simple.

It gives me the RAGE that the Labour Party are still indulging in this sort of idiotic mad, leftist SHIT when our economy is tanking. If they want to improve schools then bloody improve them.

Do not try to blame private school parents for the state they are in. Private school parents are actually already paying for the State system same as everyone else. They are simply not actually using what they have paid for.

All the jealous people flock to these threads.

OP I will never happen.

Exactly. It’s such lazy petty politics.

This (ie adding VAT to school fees) woild if pushed through be an absolutely batshitly destructive move by labour.

They would push kids into the already oversubscribed public sector, with the pressure on resources felt by the most needy.

The money made would be trivial compared to the cost. There are approx 600,000 kids in private school. If you assume average fees of 17k a year and that every parent paid this it would amount to approx 2% of the uk education budget. In contrast, for every child that moved from private to state education they would have to find double the cost of the vat income to find their place.

It also won't solve either in the short or long term any inequality. The rich will continue to pay the fees, so the gulf between truly rich and middle class widens, whilst at the same time pressure on the state system means the worst off/ those who find it hardest to access education are worse off still.

This is why I will never vote labour.

it will stop producing terrible self serving politicians that don't fund state education properly good grief. The majority of independent school DC don't even go into politics, let alone all have the same opinions. Writing independent school DC off as a mass of braying billionaire Boris lookalike toffs is a shitty attitude toward children. The DC do all sorts and aspire to be anything including teachers and doctors, just like teenagers anywhere. And the fees go back into the economy via teachers salaries, supplies etc too, they don't vanish into a billionaires back pocket. And foreign pupils bring money into the economy too, there's loads of them.

My DC at indy has friends from all walks of life, their best friend's parent is a state school teacher, another friend is Finnish, they have a Mongolian friend, its much more multicultural than our local comp. The difference is their friends don't all live in a fixed radius of their school.

A very vocal and very left-leaning teacher I know lives in a house worth 4 x mine to send their DC to the leafiest comprehensive for 50 miles, they talk the big talk but have discreetly gamed the system. And they complain to and about the school all the damned time and get nowhere. But somehow me, in my crap house but using my own money to put DC in fantastic schools they're thriving in is doing something monstrous by comparison. Its ludicrous, I could home ed but not be able to work nearly as much which means I'd pay less tax, so why is that more acceptable? Anti-indy is a straw man argument.

The British state system is just one way of educating but its far from being the only way, to think it should be is overly simplistic and not in the real world. Put 500,000 DC from indy schools into the state system and it would be a disaster in an already overwhelmed system and the already overwhelmed teachers would bear the brunt.