To marvel at privately educated Keir Starmer's hypocrisy?

[Bursarysadness]

Both Kier Starmer and his wife are privately educated. Kier's senior school converted into a private school in the second year of his attendance and he has received a generous full bursary up until his A levels. He has built his life and his success on this education, supported to the end by the bursary funded by the same schools and parents he is now trying to destroy. It pains me as my children receive 50% bursaries from a brilliant local school. We've worked incredibly hard to cover the remaining 50% but it has been worth it, seeing how my children blossomed. We had a very different experience in their primary state schools, including bullying and racism. We don't live in a great area. We have just been told that the school will probably reduce all their bursaries to be able to lower the fees for the non bursary parents who are now struggling because of the VAT introduction. I don't know what the future for my children is now and they have so many close friends where they are. They are both academically brilliant and work very hard - hence the bursaries were granted. I feel so depressed that, from what is becoming obvious, they won't be able to benefit from the generosity of bursaries the same way Kier Starmer did when he was a child ..

You wasn’t saying that about Rishi
Sunaks wife ..

To be fair Rishi Sunak's parents are a GP and an NHS pharmacist. Although quite well paying, these are still 'normal' jobs. We are not talking FTSE CEO or Hedge Fund manager type millions.
Boris' background was very bohemian and certainly not financially very stable. He was a King's scholar at Eton because he was academically brilliant. Likewise fees at Winchester were much more affordable in the 1990s when Rishi attended. It is really surprising how much they have increased over the last 30 years.

Do you feel the same about private tutors? Private music or sports classes? Private healthcare?

@Q2C4 "Do you feel the same about private tutors? Private music or sports classes? Private healthcare?"
I never understand why people think this is relevant.

@Crispsandwineandcheese "You wasn’t saying that about Rishi
Sunaks wife .."

No, I wasn't. That's because her extraordinary wealth and her tax affairs were actually relevant to Sunak's prime ministership.

If the 93% of parents of state school pupils haven't managed to improve standards, what makes you think that the 7% of parents of private school children will? Surely if they had that much influence this policy wouldn't be going ahead at all?!

The same could be said to parents complaining that private education should be banned as it's out of reach for their families (which you could say is surprising as presumably they factored in lifestyle impact when assessing their career choices).

The glee expressed by some posters on here re parents who will have to take their children out of private schools is palpable.

Because these are also forms of education/healthcare only available to those who can pay for it.

I really can't say why people chose to stay. We are in a very ethnically diverse area. It was well known in the local community that the school didn't deal with racism effectively but a lot of ethnic minority families chose to send their kids there anyway. I never understood why. It was an open secret for years but it all came out very publicly in the end. It doesn't seem to have affected recruitment.

@Tempnamechanger53

He was a King's scholar at Eton because he was academically brilliant.

I wish people would stop trotting out this fucking tripe. Being good at niche subjects like Classics does not make you “academically brilliant”.

This is the man who was so poor at numerate subjects and STEM-related stuff, he couldn’t understand the stats presented to him during COBRA meetings. The guy seems to be quite good at a couple of almost entirely impractical and irrelevant subjects: let’s not get carried away.

Yes. They are just average Joes really. I mean Sunak didn’t even have Sky TV as a child bless him.

He was awarded one of the King's scholars' scholarships the year he sat the Entrance and scholarship exams and must have performed outstandingly to have been awarded one.
Also are History and Literature irrelevant and niche- I would argue they are at the very heart of the human condition.

Because they then send their kids to private school and support private school.

My brother went to Leeds University in the same time period with similar grades from a comprehensive.

My school friend got into Manchester with similar.

And the idea that the only decent state schools are in expensive areas is nonsense.

There is no statistical evidence anywhere in the world that selective education produces better results than non selective.

Double taxpayers that is. That money has already been taxed. Also, agree that it should have been staggered but it is planned to be done in the most mean way. Reeves also lied to say September 25 and then they brought it forward to force people already enrolled to pay. You need to give notice to schools not to be charged and changing kids mid year is a nightmare. Disgusting and shameful. So much for the kindest people now in charged. I heard of so many regretting already to have voted Labour as so far they have been so sneaky with hole in the budget bollocks to raise tax. Not to mention people were voting against Tories and not for Labour to begin with.

If they are academically brilliant they will be fine in state school. My children are academically brilliant, and go to a state school in south london. They are also mixed race, and have suffered no bullying. You can’t judge all state schools based on the one your children went to until they were moved to private. At the end of the day, Keir isn’t a hypocrite as he sends his children to a state school, and his parents didn’t send him to a fee paying school, it became one after he started which is totally different. Private schooling is a luxury, I’m sure many of us would love a large bursary, you’re just thinking of your own pocket and not kids at large, so no-one hear is going to care. South london has some great schools, move house if you’re that concerned about possibility of going back to state

If you're going to call them double taxpayers, I guess that applies to all of us. I can't imagine that there is a single taxpayer that doesn't pay VAT on the purchases that they choose to make, alongside the various other taxes that they will be paying from income that has already been taxed.

Look at Finland.

I don't know whether private parents would
make a huge difference to state schools-and anyway, I suspect there will actually be very few moving when it comes to the point. I do think the money will make a difference though.

Exactly, all of us pay tax on luxuries.

Is that you, Angela?

@Crispsandwineandcheese "Is that you, Angela?"

Eh?

There's a whole bunch of things to unpack in here, but I am intrigued by your suggestion that schools in South London have changed (presumably for the worse). Since when? I have friends whose kids went to school in South London in the 2000s; mine are at (primary and secondary state) schools there now and our experience sounds a lot better than theirs. My kids (both boys btw) are white and at schools where 85-90% of the kids are not white; racism is not tolerated. My information is of course anecdotal, as is yours, but the picture you paint of schools in South London is completely counter to my experience.

On the point of your original post, I hope you are able to keep your children at their school if that is what you want. But for the reasons many other posters have given, there is no hypocrisy in Starmer's position.