Doubts grow over Labour’s VAT plan for private schools

[Blanketyre]

Article in the Observer here:
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/oct/05/doubts-grow-over-labours-vat-plan-for-private-schools

I must say they've gone very quiet on it.

Wouldn’t they usually be there?

A friend works in a private school. She said that they get a big intake in year 9, it's because parents have given up on their particular state school after two years of problems. They're now worried about GCSE S.

There's another surge in the sixth form.

Jennywren2000
In addition to this, well off left wingers smugly take advantage of the system: good church schools (Tony Blair’s kids- London Oratory)

Bridget Phillipson is Catholic - she may be looking at the same state schools as Blair for her own children.

No they are paying for it - and considering they are paying £7k in to the tax system that is not being used to school their dc I don't think they should be taxed when paying additional money to school privately.

And I am not a private school parent, nor a tory voter, I just believe that this is a crap policy

None of us are paying 7k for state education directly. Lots and lots of people who don't have kids are also paying tax and paying for education. Healthy people are paying for NHS treatment for sick people. It's how tax works, so although the broad principle is true that private parents like me are helping to pay for a system they are not using, its not 7k. Let's not overstate things and set up straw man arguments.

The point is that they could use the state system. By not doing so, they are saving the taxpayer around £7k per year per child.

If they back track on this they are even more incompetent than I thought! I hope it goes through. And if it does it will stay as no future treasury will be able to reverse it. My only concern is SEN provision and I think that needs looking at separately and with care.

It would be great if they did backtrack and use their time to sort out properly SEN needs

Shut up and pay the tax ya greedy bastards. Just saying what normal people are thinking 🤷‍♀️

Ha ha remember to keep that same energy when you or those you know are affected. I will make sure to remind you :-)

Have we really descended into this childish name calling?

I mean Bridget style rhetoric is great and all but you are asking others to pay. You could pay more

Quite! Of course we're so greedy for not burdening the state with our kids' education. Maybe some people need to look closer at who the greedy ones are here!

“We want more money for our state education but we don’t want to pay for it. You people not even using the state system should pay for it”. Who are the greedy ones?

And why don’t you pay more?

No normal people are concerned about SEN provision.

You are legally mandated to have your children in full time education between 4 and 16 (or is it 18 now), you either have them in the state school or pay for their education yourself. If you pay yourself then you save the state £7260 on average per child per annum.

It is easier to just say that 10% of the tax you pay goes to pay for state education. That is the percentage of the UK government expenditure on education. Because parents with children in independent school are mostly higher earners, they are already paying most of the tax in this country. Remember that 50% of UK take is paid by the top 5% of earners. It means that This tiny group fo people is being taxed, taxed and taxed again. For what? For not using those services that the rest of the country won't pay for. It's pathetic.

It’s more than that now.

“On a per-pupil basis the total funding allocated to schools for 5-16 year old pupils, in cash terms, in 2024-25 was £7,690”

My colleague at work complained bitterly that he and wife who chose not to have children weren't getting a tax break.

Why wouldn’t a future treasury be able to reverse it? All the main parties are against the policy, private schools are an incredible cost saver for the state so growth in that sector saves money (currently £4 billion pa) with every child going private saving the government 3 times the cost per child that the tax would bring in on average and any further closer relationship with the EU would lead to an immediate rollback as education tax is illegal under EU law. The policy is an utter dud, it was just to grab the petty spite vote and was quite clearly never going to go anywhere,

Someone said that the private sector 75% of school fees were employees costs. So how much percentage wise is it in the state sector?

I ask because parents at state school primary here are asked to provide paper, pens, books, pritt stick etc. we get polite requests from their teachers.

this month anyone with spare Halloween decorations for a school party. We'll also be baking, donating bottles of squash, sandwiches, crisps. Paying £2.50 a ticket for the children to attend.

Come December we'll be asked again for Xmas decorations, a few Christmas trees, food for the party disco again £2.50 to attend.

Our primary is on the bones of its arse. 15% cut over the last two years. TAs as rare as hens teeth.

They've built two large housing estates around 500 family sized homes so our schools numbers have nearly doubled in size in the last four years not an extra classroom in sight until 2026.

Our head sensibly took early retirement.

Maybe the parents can make a donation to the school? Or you should look for private schools? My kids are at private school and the parents pay for everything (out of their already taxed income) and don’t rely on the tax payer at all. It works really well as a system.

We often hear the argument that private school users should be forced into state school so that they will “have skin in the game” and care about stare schools.

Maybe the corollary to this is that middle earners should pay more tax to support state schools so that they also haveskin im the game and care about how schools are run.

Well the wealthier parents at that state could choose to make voluntary cash contributions to the school ie through direct debit. I bet they don't though