To be a private school parent who doesn't mind the VAT?

[PrincessOfPreschool]

I just wanted to write this to show the other side. Not all private school parents are moaning and I think it's the ones who understand the spectrum of society and their privilege within it, who aren't the ones moaning.

Writing on behalf of my friend who is not on MN but is sick and tired of all the school WhatsApps going round bemoaning VAT. She thinks it's fair, she's happy to pay it. She's aware of her privilege.

She has one son in state school (with SEN) and one in private school. So she knows both systems. She's grateful for the privilege of being able to send one child privately. Most of her close friends (her children went to state primary) do not have children in private school. She's sensitive to her privilege.

She is firmly in the real world. She works for the NHS and she's a bit shocked at the lack of awareness of privilege that all this moaning is showing. She's not at all wealthy but they have enough for the VAT because they don't spend much on other stuff.

These people do exist!

The ones who are moaning as your friend puts it are concerned for the ill thought out logic behind the initiative.

Writing on behalf of my friend who is not on MN but is sick and tired of all the school WhatsApps going round bemoaning VAT.

Well thank goodness you’re hear to share with us the opinion of someone who can’t even be bothered to do so herself 🙄

I have quite a lot of friends who privately educate their kids. They are the same - not necessarily thrilled at the prospect of having to pay more, but accepting it because they realise that they're in a privileged position. And they have seen it as a possibility for quite a while, so they have obviously planned accordingly.

She's not on here. But I wanted to create a more balanced view and to consider why it is that some parents (not necessarily the wealthy people) are more ok than others.

I am sure many people will be OK with this. Apologies in advance for all the crap you will be receiving on this thread.
We are not in a position to afford private school fees at the moment ourselves, however, some of our friends do have kids in a private school and VAT is not a huge hindrance to them when compared to their annual income. I find that people who are the most worried/affected are those on a slightly higher incomes which is "just enough" to manage private schooling and healthcare. All the people I know who can be considered wealthy don't generally mind paying a little more into the system. Maybe this is just in my circle of fairly liberal friends and acquaintances.

Well I won't be sending my child to private school but will still feel the negative effects of this policy. Schools round here are already oversubscribed and we have been offered our third choice primary whereas in previous years we would have likely got into our first choice. State schools also rely heavily on private school facilities such as swimming pools etc. So it won't be the rich or the comfortable who suffer, it will be everyone below them in an already broken system. If VAT is going on private school fees will university fees be next?

It’s the logic of the policy though. It’s not helping education in any way, not getting rid of inequality. State schools are in dire straits, this policy doesn’t help them. No policy has been mentioned that will help state schools. That is what is wrong with this policy

I think you can both understand it but also realise it might turn your plans upside down.

DD is private and I know plenty of wealthy parents who don't care about the policy at all. I am not on the wealthy end of the wedge, like your friend, and it hits us far harder. I struggle to imagine she can just adjust all of her finances if she is working in NHS to accommodate the usual rises as well as the VAT without seriously changing something, as I am having to do. I've stressed so much about whether to pull her out and stick her in grammar (she was bullied in her state primary by the grammar trained girls) which she does not want to do, can't face a sink school... I have to suck it up. I have to remortgage. It is far harder for me than the other parents who are "fine with it".

I'm a private school parent who would happily pay the VAT if it would improve education standards for the vast majority of the population that don't use private schools but the reality is that it will only widen the gap between those who can afford private school and those who can't and will put more strain on already struggling state schools. It's an ill thought out policy that will negatively impact the very people it is claiming to help which is what I think most fellow private school parents I have spoken to find frustrating.

I also know a family using inheritance to pay. This adds an extra £50-60 on for them and they then can't offer any more to their DC - nothing for Uni/car/back up/their own pension pot. If their roof falls in in the meantime it means their DC can't do A levels at the same school. Up until this year it has been unclear exactly what Labour were going to do and how popular they would be - even now we don't know when it will be implemented.

If they see it as 'a little bit more' that tells you quite a lot about their financial position! Not everybody has such large margins. In fact, I have a feeling I've seen a thread on here before with a pp talking about her 'hard up' friend with SEN needs kid who was really happy to pay ' a little bit more'.

I'm not at the point of remortgaging, but this has rather thrown off my plans, which were based on the assumption that I wouldn't be paying fees like this for another 5 years. This will require some serious cutting back and rethinking our pension planning. I'm really quite sick of hearing about these 'nice, liberal' parents who are just so delighted to be paying 'a little bit more' into the system. Not all of us are in that position! It's got nothing to do with how liberal you are! I'm generally a liberal minded person who is happy to pay my taxes, but I wasn't aware of this tax until I'd already got my children into school.

Completely agree with this. The private tutoring industry is booming (see Sutton Trust report). Parents who do decide to move their children to State as a result of VAT will invest in private tutoring and their children will still do better than their state school peers. The money raised via VAT will also NOT go back to the state sector as we all know, politicians cannot manage money, which ever party is in power! Some 'education project' with fancy expensive consultants will absorb all the increased revenue as is done in every public industry, similar to the NHS (the number of failed IT projects).

That's what's so demoralising! I'd like to say I'm thinking 'Well, I'm cutting back on a lot to pay for an unplanned tax, but at least it's going to a good cause' - after all, we're just broke like everybody else now, so no big deal, right? But it will just evaporate. Last time they got in Labour put tuition fees on universities and look at the state our universities are in! I've lost faith in both parties at this stage.

Yes me too. I'm still keen to rejoin EU as DD wants to study abroad, so I am voting Liberal Democrats this time. They are the only party willing to talk about what a mess Brexit has become and go some way to fixing it.

Not sure I’ve seen privalge written in a short op quite so much,😂

I'm Lib Dem too. They couldn't possible do a worse job. What's to lose! 😂

For the majority of people 20% raise in fees will significantly affect their life, therefore in reality they oppose it, no matter what they say publicly.

I have three kids, 20% of private school fees is £11000. Now ask yourself, would you personally agree to pay £11000 every year to bring Labor into power?

Would you agree donate it, yearly, to the NHS or other worthy cause?

No?

Neither would absolute majority of private school parents, unless they earn multiple three figures.

I wonder how she squares away the "fair" part of it with the fact that it's against EU law.

And to put the other side of it, there are plenty of people who will not be impacted by it (eg their kids are grown up) who don't agree with it it. There are also people in the state sector who don't agree with it. And teachers who don't agree with it.

For those saying they are voting Lib Dem I have to say I was pleasantly surprised reading their manifesto. Clearly laid out and sensible policies to particularly benefit those who need it most. Labours on the other hand was just a lot of waffle and buzz phrases with far too many headshots of Keir Starmer.

It makes me squirm when people go on about children 'being aware of their privilege'. I don't want my dc thinking they are more privileged than their friends from state schools! It also puts massive pressure on children whose parents paid for them to go to school that they have to achieve something or owe everybody something. They're not in the flipping royal family. It's just a school that you pay for!

You can see from many of the responses here that many of those who enjoy great privilege will kick and scream as hard as they can to deny it.

It's almost as if being privileged is an unfair and undeserved advantage, and they know it.

Which is it? On these threads we're told both that private schools are a waste of money, the state schools are great and everyone's dc are becoming doctors or off to Cambridge AND that our children have some kind of incredible advantage that's being completely denied to everybody else. Which is it?

Exactly. We can't trust the wealthy to be fair so we have to tax them.