To think that those private school parents banging on about their fees

[Thegreatergoodgerald]

Seriously have misjudged how little anyone else gives a stuff??? NHS, social care, state education, public transport, bloody potholes everywhere - that’s what matters to everyone I know.
Not whether or not VAT is added to a business.

YANBU - it’s hardly the end of the world if Clemmie or Charles end up going to a state school. We have bigger things to worry about in the U.K. right now

YABU - of course everyone cares private school parents might have to pay more

Exactly. Nor do they have anything in place for the NHS, universities, councils and long list of other services which have been entirely decimated over the past 14 years.

They are hiding behind this smokescreen knowing pulling down people who have something the majority can’t afford can win votes.

In reality, they are behaving no better than the tories and I have absolutely no hope with either of them in power

Have you done the sums for the cost to the tax payer? That wasn’t there before?

8k per child per year. 14yrs of education.

Doesn’t quite work out for labours plans does it?

@Wewereonnabreak this is going to be the problem if extra children go from private to state, especially Secondary. Teachers won’t follow them, they will just leave Education. Secondaries are already struggling to recruit teachers for a number of subjects. PE teachers seem to be the ones used to cover all other subjects

So kids going to non selective comps are all destined to fail? Nice.

What about the many private schools that are not profit making? Which is an awful lot of the smaller schools. The Etons are still going to be fine obviously, but the small schools that keep fees as low as possible, that is actually the only access to a private education for most middle class parents will be screwed.

So how does it promote social mobility to make it so that only the most wealthy can afford private education?

@CactusMactus the education sector is failing our children (down to Government, funding etc)

The best comment so far. Labour - DIVIDE AND RULE!

This policy is a JOKE! Of NO BENEFIT to anyone.

Labour would have you think it’s a race to the bottom, we are COMPETING AGAINST THE WORLD here guys!! Why is no one seeing the DAMAGE this will cause the economy, overall the COUNTRY with LOSE OUT!!

You haven’t read the plans for the NHS? If that’s managed to elude you it’s an indication of how reliable the rest of your post is.

https://labour.org.uk/missions/nhs/

Thank you, I appreciate it. We're so much happier. I was a shadow of myself and I look back and can't believe everything I put up with and normalised. I've spoken to some private school teachers who have told me how much better it is for them and tried to encourage us back into education but the idea of going back into a classroom makes me feel physically sick now. I really feel for any teachers who have found a happy place in private school and may now lose their jobs. I doubt many will be willing to put up with the exploitation in state schools, they'll just leave education.

I agree.

Yeah, I am a bit bloody tired of this shit, tbh.

I will defend people's right to educate their children with whatever resources that can put to it and without ideological interference. But, you can get to fuck with this 'bottom of the pile' shit.

I think they should make whether VAT is payable on school fees income and wealth based. They should ask each private school parent to self certify at the start of each academic what their status is (and the penalty should be tax fraud and a criminal offence).
Something along the lines of: if you have 1 child in private education, if your income is above 130k and your wealth (housing, investments, second homes, accounts) more than 1 million - then you pay the VAT. If you have 2 DC in private education, is your income more than 160k and wealth 1.3 million etc etc

And to be honest, I think the same should apply to children with EHCPs and in special schools but with much higher threshold. Personally I know a number of rich people who get state funding for their EHCP children and they could also contribute a bit more too.

If it is income and wealth based, it will be fairer.

My kids are thriving in the state sector

Most people’s are.

Education is generally quite low on voter priorities overall.

Maybe engage your brain a bit before asking ridiculous questions

Yes, mine too. In a, brace for it, exclusively comprehensive school area, no less.

Hmm. I’d be gutted if that was the best they could come up with. But I’d probably will vote Labour because the only other option is Tory and I wouldn’t vote for them with a gun to my head. Lib Dems are nobody’s where I am. It’s not just education that’s at stake but it is massively important to me.

I don’t love Starmer, and I was fucking furious about Natalie fucking Elphicke being welcomed into the party with open arms. I’ve resolved to spoil my ballot if he allows in any more racist Tory rejects.

Interesting article by Tim Leunig, an economist and former special adviser to Downing Street, the Treasury and Department for Education in 2023. He tweeted despite the threat of VAT, private school applications are the second highest in history. He has no doubt that the sector will be fine, and that Labour will raise a decent sum of money.

From article:

“There are times in our lives when bad stuff happens. State schools did not want the Theresa May cuts in real-terms funding. Indeed, they didn’t want austerity at all. But you know what? That is democracy and we have to live with the decisions our politicians make.

State schools, starting from much lower levels of funding, managed to make ends meet. Good, valuable things were scrapped. Quite remarkably (at least until Covid) our schools and our children coped. Outcomes remained strong, measured by GCSE results, PISA and comparison with other parts of the UK. Our state schools can be proud of what they have achieved in tough times.

It is time for private schools to show the same resilience. Fees have risen a lot in recent years. If parents won’t pay 20 per cent more, private schools need to make austerity work. No more fancy new buildings. Hire out that swimming pool in the evenings. Maybe – whisper it quietly – close the pool altogether.

And if they struggle to do that, perhaps they should approach their local state schools to ask how to cut costs without cutting standards. I am sure for the right fee our state school leaders, many of whom really are outstanding, would be willing to impart their wisdom.

No doubt they’d find a lot of savings to make. In fact, I’d bet a bottle of luxury sparkling wine on it.

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/avoiding-vat-is-a-risky-strategy-for-private-schools-better-advice-is-available/

With falling budgets, teacher retention issues, teacher recruitment issues, estates that schools can’t afford to maintain, woeful SEND funding, teachers having to provide resources out of their own pockets, schools having to provide services that external agencies should be, the list goes on, our children are not being prioritised and they are being failed

Very good.

Ahh the plan that has as much behind it as
‘Recruit 6500 teachers’ with absolutely no indication of where and how.

I am a doctor working for the NHS. I live with the difficulties every single day - this plan has fantastic sound bites with very little detail on how it will possibly be achieved with all the current problems we are facing

I was hoping that article was going to tell me something new
Alas…..no!

I’d be surprised if many hadn’t already seen this but no one’s taking the idea that doctors and nurses just do overtime to deal with waiting lists as a serious and reasonable proposal.
They already do overtime and are overworked.

Have they asked doctors about all this overtime, no! Why, because they are already overworked.

We need more doctors and now with more doctors in training as more places at Universities have been allowed by the Government we may see things filter through, but that’s not down to yet another pathetic I’ll thought out policy by the Labour Party.

That’s because the detail will be in the manifesto, deliberately withheld because the Tories have form for stealing policies. I can’t get my head round anyone working in the NHS wanting another Tory government. You should ask your older colleagues about what it was like pre 2010.