To think that there would be less anti private school

[Poopoolittlekitten]

sentiment or threads on MN if people using private school were a tiny bit more self aware and didn’t ask for sympathy for rising fees or possible rising fees if Labour take away their false ‘charity’ status?

send your kid private if you want, just don’t come moaning about the costs or claim than anyone can go private if they ‘prioritise’ their child’s education they way you do. Particularly at a time when state school teachers are striking over pay and conditions.
And many, many people are working their socks off just to keep a roof over their family’s head.

YANBU - stop whining and looking for sympathy about your fees!

YABU - my milkman sends his 4 kids private by ‘prioritising’ their education so it’s not just for whiny poshos….

If you don’t agree with the posts about increasing fees, and you don’t care, why bother engaging in them? It’s not compulsory to comment. There are plenty of Mumsnet threads I have no interest in. I just scroll past.

I think you’re being short sighted OP. The removal of charity status from private schools would make private schooling unaffordable for many. Lots who attend private schools do so at a stretch- and a 10-20% rise in the cost of fees would be unaffordable. This would put a huge stress on the state system to absorb those students.

The same thing was attempted, via secondary methods in Australia in the 60s. The Goulburn School Strike (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goulburn_School_Strike) happened amid an attitude of hostility to Catholic education (which is sort of like cheap private education for those not familiar- think annual school fees of around £1,000 kind of thing, although there are of course examples of expensive private education also).

Long and the short- the catholic schools all closed, the state system was overstretched to the point of collapse and the government agreed to provide adequate funding. The idea that people who send their children to private school deserve zero state funding is odd- their parents pay taxes, presumably to fund education. It doesn’t have to all go into state run education.

I’d far rather a voucher that every child was issued good for “1 education” to be redeemed at the school of your choice upto a value of x, y, z pounds. Then it doesn’t matter if it’s public or private- everyone gets the same funding. You can make all schools charity or not- whatever- it’s by the by at that point- either your funding is adequate or it’s not.

The point of going after private school is simply because mumsnet is a bit of a left wing echo chamber, but it’s a fruitless exercise. Moaning about all those wealthy private schools as though if you took away their charity status it would result in extra taxes available for state schools is incoherent. What’s more likely to happen is all the parents who can scrape into private schooling will be forced out, the very wealthy will continue to send their children to smaller and elite paying some extra taxes, while the majority of parents take their kids and send them to local state schools and all the extra money that was being poured into the education system is withdrawn. Which leaves everybody but the vastly wealthy worse off. It’s a bad plan.

Most of the UK's 2,000 private schools are registered as charities, meaning they cannot operate for profit....... oops !.

‘Move on and focus your energies on something which could actually make a difference’

again, I can only emphasis that you have a choice NOT to read posts on subjects that wind you up so much, or from posters you stalk on MN in order to get in a froth about their opinion on popular topics.

‘Most of the UK's 2,000 private schools are registered as charities, meaning they cannot operate for profit....... oops !.’

ah of course how dim of me. They are actually charities after all, and not services for the wealthy. Now I feel silly.

and they’re definitely NOT registered as charities to avoid paying VAT.

It’s not winding me up. I just happen to disagree with you. I comment on posts on private school fees because I have an interest and opinions on them. They’re the main threads I follow. I’ve noticed that you are on almost all of the threads on this subject I’ve seen - which is odd given that you don’t care about the subject. I do care about the subject.

As they're not-for-profit and are run by an independent governing body they have to justify fee increases. Your posts are just ill-informed and bitter.

Imagine if I started a thread saying 'ooohhh, the interest rates have gone up on the mortgage for your fancy house! I don't CARE. I RENT. nah, nah, nah, nah.'

That's how you come across.

‘ I comment on posts on private school fees because I have an interest and opinions on them. ‘

snap! We have something in common after all

‘As they're not-for-profit and are run by an independent governing body they have to justify fee increases. ‘

Well, that’s good then? At least parents know what they’re getting for their money, so there shouldn’t be as much complaining when they do go up.

Removing charitable status from schools does not mean they’d necessarily be subject to VAT. Plenty of independent schools aren’t charities even now, and don’t have to charge VAT. This shows that your assertion that schools are only registered as charities to avoid VAT is incorrect.

We're wasting our time here, guys. This is a wind-up post. The OP isn't interested. She just wants to go 'nah, nah, nah, nah, nah'. Her poor kids.

Why do so many people click on a thread that's quite clearly going to be a bit of a gripe relating to private school, just to tell us all how bored they are of the subject? Like we should care that you don't want to read it 🙄

It's not complicated. If you're not interested, you can simply scroll past and find another thread. Every thread on MN isn't required to be tailored to your interests and viewpoints. Talk about entitled.

'Removing charitable status from schools does not mean they’d necessarily be subject to VAT. Plenty of independent schools aren’t charities even now, and don’t have to charge VAT. This shows that your assertion that schools are only registered as charities to avoid VAT is incorrect.'

Good, then the fees shouldn't go up then. 70% of schools DO have charity status, 30% don't so are run as legit business and subject to business rates and but the make it work, so I'm sure the others can to.

'It's not complicated. If you're not interested, you can simply scroll past and find another thread. Every thread on MN isn't required to be tailored to your interests and viewpoints. Talk about entitled.'

Exactly! it was a simple question with a voting option - didn;t have to descend into another debate about private schools...

I feel some sympathy for many people who are finding their financial circumstances changing a lot in a very short space of time.

Obviously struggling to pay for private school fees is not the same as struggling to pay for food, but we should all be able to plan our lives with reasonable price increases in things.

Mumsnet should be for people on a range of budgets.

I don’t send my kids to private school so no bias.

All I can see is a mass exodus to already over subscribed excellent state schools and even higher house prices in those areas.

If you honestly think that families who would have previously been able to afford private school are going to accept poorly performing state schools as an alternative you aren’t thinking straight. They’ll just become another tier system put in place and kids who might have previously been able to access decent state schools will instead be put into the schools that have a low uptake rating due to poor behaviour/high teacher retention etc etc.

@RudsyFarmer exactly my point

‘I feel some sympathy for many people who are finding their financial circumstances changing a lot in a very short space of time’

of it was someone losing their job, business or house perhaps. But moving a child from private school to a state school? Not so much.

Not that I think many will, they’ll just absorb the costs. As they have been doing for decades.

This is not a choice between a warm house or a cold house, food or no food or roof over head or eviction.

It’s precisely what will happen. People will then complain that the previously privately educated children are taking decent state places. The only way to ensure equality is to improve the state system so everyone gets a decent education in the state system, or to totally scrap the state admissions processes and make it so allocations are done on a lottery system - no catchment areas or selective exams. I’d like to see how that proposal would be received by those currently in the state system.

And @Another76543 politicians would react to their constituents complaints or risk losing their seats. Heavens some politicians might even have skin on the state game.. finally.

I was giving my opinion, which you apparently asked for. It’s possible to have sympathy for more people than just those struggling for the very basics.

I hope they can absorb the costs because moving schools is stressful for children and parents.

I’m not convinced MPs will listen, given that they’re apparently not listening now. Presumably plenty of constituents are complaining about the state of this country’s education now?

It does frustrate me when some parents say they aren't privileged, they have just scrimped and saved to send their DC to private school (usually by driving an "old car" and only going on UK holidays). You would only be in a position to pay for private school in the first place if you were wealthy. The vast majority couldn't afford private fees through any amount of scrimping or saving. A lot of us drive old cars and only go on cheap holidays, or have no car and no holidays at all.

Can afford, wouldn't do it on ethical grounds, so no.

Yes @Another76543 but are they wobbling Tory voters?