VAT on private school fees - will it change how you vote?

[Iwishicouldflyhigh]

Following on from the other interesting thread about whether it will be implemented, will this policy change how you vote either way?
For me - i've voted Labour and Tory over the years, but Tory for the most recent GE's. This year, i've been thinking seriously about how i'd vote at the next GE and it wasn't definitely a Tory vote - i was definitely a floating voter.
However, my children are at PS and so i will now most definitely be voting Tory (not just because how the VAT will seriously impact us - child number 3 will now not be going to the prep that we had lined up for her, she'll enter the local primary until secondary school - but how i think that it will affect schools negatively and children negatively).
I have a lot of left leaning friends who educate privately and whilst they cannot bring themselves to vote Tory, they won't vote Labour either at the next GE because of this policy.

It seems to me that this policy is only a vote loser (ie many Labour voters and 'floaters' who school privately won't vote for them at the next GE) and not a vote winner (ie i can't imagine that many Tory or 'floaters' will vote for Labour solely on this policy).

AiBU to think that Labour have really shot themselves in the foot with this idea?

I don’t want your details

But I can see for many posters it’s empty virtue signalling as per

There’s zero intention of handing over extra tax, but pleased others are being asked to

No great moral good there - we can all point to ‘someone else should pay’

You actually think noone would be happy to pay more tax themselves if it meant better services including education or health services?

Anyone can pay voluntary tax

So true😂😂

If there was an actual ring fenced increase for state education I’d be in!

“Thats why they are essentially hypocrites. They want "other people that is not them to pay for it".

Discussions with people with this mentality always descend into circular arguments. They simply do not want to pay for their own public services.

Once you realise that, its easier to conclude "its time to leave this country". “

@BouncingJAS
Could not agree more! It always comes out very clearly when you ask the question back……”but why don’t YOU contribute more to improve the state of the system that is educating your child?” …… crickets!!

Firstly, how do you know they don't or (more likely) give a lot of money to charity. Secondly, why should they not want people with a similar income to also pay more tax? That would make much more difference than just one more person paying more tax?

Bollocks. People are contributing to PTAs, funding and resources up and down the country. Every board of governors has professionals giving their free time to ensure the school can function at all. Others volunteer as readers etc. people do a lot to prop up the state system in many ways.
paying to have your kids out the door longer certainly isn’t the only way to value education

The question mark is over the morality of wealthy people as you are wealthy if you can afford private school fees on average £15,000 a year, (the person I know whose first child is now at university was telling me how cheap uni is in comparison!) should have this position subsidised by indirectly via tax breaks for a service they are buying. A choice that a large proportion of the population cannot make.

The wealth inequalities are so stark in the UK, fuelled further by Conservative policies over the last decade, that the notion of bettering yourself, improving your lot is a hopeless one, the data speaks for itself, we can't be in it together on the income tax being increased for all as there is no equality in income distribution anymore. As I posted above last night, via indirect taxes poorer people are actually paying more! So actually they are paying, paying for private school tax breaks, is that morally acceptable? As if we didn't need anymore proof of these inequalities, today a new report by the Academy for medical Sciences has come out revealing the Experts warned of the “appalling decline” of the health of children under the age of five in the UK – with soaring rates of obesity and tooth decay. The UK ranks 30th out of 49 OECD countries for infant mortality, 30th!! How can everyone contribute to tax breaks for the richest 5% of the country when the above is true, how is this in anyway morally justifiable!

In other countries state education is means tested with parents who earn above the threshold paying a small donation to the school every term (few hundred pounds). While I understand that not everyone can afford that, many high earners state educate their children and could easily contribute in this way to help take the pressure off their school and improve resources, facilities etc. PTA tombolas alone don’t quite cut it. These schools need additional regular income sources and many parents who use them are well within their means to provide this. Yet instead look to others to pay up for them!

All of the above goes on in private schools too by the way. On top of paying extra into hardship funds, fundraising to support local charities not to mention funds being raised directly to support bursaries and scholarships. Again, all contributed to by fee paying parents.

Has anyone said that they wouldn't be willing to give an income based contribution or time to raise funds? I can tell you know nothing about state schools if you think parents don't already contribute a lot in some areas.

Good idea @Seasaltlady it wouldn’t win as many votes as people love the idea that others will pay but I’d be up for it

And yet via tax breaks, you are looking for 95% of the population that don't and can't choose private education to fund your choice, a choice that gives your children a distinct advantage over others.

I certainly haven’t seen a single person on this thread, or anywhere for that matter, suggest it so far! How about writing a letter to your local Labour MP to recommend it as a possible solution? No point in just saying “I would give an income based contribution to my child’s state school if I had to” …. Take meaningful action to make it happen :)

@Seasaltlady not everyone thinks like you and it may surprise you that there are plenty of high earners who choose not to use private schools, contribute massively to their school communities, give up time from work to accompany kids on school trips and pay extra money in per year to help ensure all kids at school can attend the trips.

There are plenty of people at the other end of the tax system doing the same thing too because they can think about people other than themselves which doesn't seem to be the case with some people here.

What is most off putting about private schools are the parents who frequent threads like this.

To add another dimension. There are state schools and then there are state schools. Not all state schools are equal. You have the ones Labour politicians send their children too, which are effectively like private schools. You have the grammars. You have single sex state schools. Then you have the big standard crappy underfunded comprehensives. I say this as a person who went to one.
Labour should concentrate their efforts on bettering all state education and opportunities, not concentrate on bringing people down. But the latter is their specialism of course. They started the destruction of grammars, the introduction of uni fees, and now the (utterly incoherent but vote winning punish the wealthy) intro of vat on their selected aspect of education (private schools). Despite the fact that there is currently no VAT on any aspect of education. What next?

I understand why people get annoyed with people using them for votes and little else

It’d be more in line with wanting to help if high earning state school offered extra tax instead

A state school is effectively a private school - how so?

We only have comprehensive schools where I live, they are good schools and the allocation is via a lottery system. My DS achieved better grades than family members that attended the best private schools in the country.

There you go. Why not campaign to pay extra as @Seasaltlady suggested

Your outcome was good, you have funds

Yes! I have been lurking on this thread and this has been pretty much my only takeaway

I think it would be very costly to implement that system centrally but schools certainly ask parents for money all the time.

I feel like that about state demanders of other people’s money 😬

Badly worded apologies. Also spelling incorrect ‘to’. I meant that schools like London Oratory School (Blair) and Westminster's Grey Coat Hospital school (Gove) aren’t the usual state schools. Then we have the lab politicians who send their children to private schools. They’re all hypocrites.

That great for your son. Of course many children do well at state schools, that’s not in question.