To think that improving state schools needs people to pay an e.g. a state school tax?

[Theyhadsomehoneyandplentyofmoney]

What with the current hoo ha about VAT on private school and commentary about equality and privilege.. wouldn’t it make sense to vastly improve state schools? And in order to do so obviously the government needs more cash.

Isn’t it reasonable therefore to ask anyone using state schools, to pay a bit of tax for that, in order to improve all said schools from their (often) current dire state?

I think paying for A and E is a good idea. I was shocked when I was there recently after a bad accident that so many people at the desk were complaining of such minor ailments.

Our kids attend a local state secondary that we have been very happy with after private primary that we were not totally happy with. We give the school a monthly donation of £100 to help towards their costs and know other parents also make regular and ad hoc donations. The teaching at the state secondary has generally been better than what we experienced at private school.

You could increase taxation all you like but until we have a government who prioritises education nothing will change. Our current government don’t care about the kids who attend state schools.

The HT of our local comprehensive has interviewed many teachers leaving the private sector. The majority do not have the skills required to teach at all and have been benefiting from the private experience in a different way!

Ultimately I think that it comes down to personal responsibility. More people need to take personal responsibility for themselves and their family. Health and education being 2 of the areas where taking increased personal responsibility (genuine need/challenges aside) can have dramatic and worthwhile impact.

I'll call you privileged, does that count?

Being so anti-state, I am curious as to how you got out of your homeless situation?

It should be fair… so only tax those who earn more than me .. 🙄 I have had enough of these threads.

We have always donated to the state schools that our children attend, and it certainly seems that the schools rely on parents to donate if they can afford to. It is openly acknowledged that the state funding is insufficient.

Same here and we are asked to pay for consumables for art, tech and science at the start of each term.

In Scotland there is guidance against asking families for the cost of consumables for any subject. All under "cost of the school day" work. Efforts to reduce the cost of the school day a make it more equitable for all.

I don’t. Some of us have children who have conditions that require frequent admissions and trips to A&E. poorer parents would be put off doing what the NHS wants them to and their child needs them to do.

We already pay tax and NI so, no thanks.

My post was not supposed to be threatening at all. Purely, and you can see already how many contribute, that not only could the VAT spectacularly backfire but the state seems system needs levelling up not the PS pulling down.

I'm sorry but PS parents will shout louder, not a threat, a fact. Labour are saying the money will go to state education, what else are they going to do to level up the state system and help deprived areas? How about expecting the rich academies with all their rich parents to provide outreach like they do the PS? I suspect PS will stop all that now as there's no need.

Its very possible the previous generation didn't want to pay for your education, and may not feel that was their money well spent.

I want to know what on earth the government are spending the money on as it doesn't appear to be on Education/NHS/Police/Housing/other infrastructure that is needed for a functioning society.

Agree with many others more is needed than money being thrown at the problem.

Also the resentment at the “good” state schools - most cities have very mixed housing even the leafiest state school will be more demographically mixed than a private school. Good state schools also don’t get contextual offers from universities (rightly so) but have the other negatives of state (stuck with difficult pupils /teacher retention) so arguably they have worst of all worlds - if that makes you feel better!

So how much would you think is fair?
What's not much to one person could be prohibitive to the next. Someone can still be on relatively low income but paying tax. Once they've paid for the roof over their head and the food on the table there's not much left.

I wasn’t talking about the value but the principle of paying additional taxes for services you use but others don’t.

If it's zero then you aren't paying any tax for the service you use. You pay to pollute, not to use any service.

State schools were perfectly good by the end of the last Labour administration. The Tories chose to destroy all the good work that had been done.

Many of those people are there because 111 told them to go after triaging them on the phone.

Taxpayers are not getting good return on their investment. They haven’t for years. Civil service and governmental agencies need proper reform to make them efficient and fit for purpose.

I do not want to pay more tax because ultimately it will get squandered.

Show me a government that can balance the books and I will possibly reconsider

Not as ridiculous a thought as taxing parents who already contribute much higher income tax than most people do to the public purse and who also save the state the 7000 odd pounds a year to educate their child or multiple children.
I wonder why is it more palatable to have someone else sacrifice yet more money to fund not only their children but also your children's education. You can't conceive sacrificing a bit of money to the school to educate your own child to the standard you are after.
There's just so much entitlement in the UK that it results in this hopelessly regressive labour policy.

Yep. In a shitty northern mining village where you were lucky to escape

But I thought private school parents were all low earners scraping by, and all the high income tax payers had mansions in sought after state catchments?