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Original poster

Private schools are not a choice

144 replies

daddiesrule · 21/02/2019 11:06

Having read a few threads about private schools recently, I found an article on the DM which wound me up massively. It stated that sending your DC to private school was a choice; am I the only idiot who thinks this isn't true?

It's only a choice for those who can afford it - if your salary is not large enough to cover it, it is definitely not a choice. Why should children who have parents in low paid jobs not have the same access to education as those with parents who earn significantly more?

Secondly, the whole reason state schools are so poorly funded is because of private schools. If all MPs and political donors were forced to use the state sector, I reckon funding for education would increase over night.

It seems unreasonable to justify having a poorly funded education system because some affluent parents have to option to pay to avoid it. This is the opposite of social mobility.

OP posts:
Knittedfairies · 21/02/2019 11:08

Stop reading the Daily Mail. Your blood pressure will thank you.

Original poster
daddiesrule · 21/02/2019 11:09

I should add that I think the DM is crap and that the article was sent to me and I succumbed.

OP posts:
RomanyQueen1 · 21/02/2019 11:12

You just said yourself some affluent parents have the option
if they can afford it, then it's a choice. Some people who can afford it don't go private, there's another choice.

HipHipHippo · 21/02/2019 11:15

Romanyqueen1 I disagree. Not having the option to go to private school for financial reasons is not a choice.
You can't just decide to have more money Hmm

SherlockSays · 21/02/2019 11:16

I think YABU. My CHOICE is to send DD to an independent school when the time comes - because the state schools are not up to scratch, at the moment - hopefully that will change before the time comes.

It will take hard work and sacrifice because we're not 'affluent' we're middle of the road but it is a CHOICE, just like it's a choice of which state school to put on your selection form.

Affluence doesn't equal an independent school, it's the parents who make that choice and there will also be plenty of children from affluent families in state schools too.

EatsFartsAndLeaves · 21/02/2019 11:20

Yanbu. No choice for me, however bad the local state schools are, however hard I work, whatever I sacrifice and however much a private school might be what my child needs. No chance of me ever being able to afford it at all.

Slapdasherie · 21/02/2019 11:22

There is a difference between choice and option.

Of course sending your children to private school is a choice, because it’s not compulsory.

But it isn’t a choice everyone has the option to make.

Having children can be a choice. And just because some people aren’t able to make that choice because of infertility, etc, doesn’t mean it isn’t a choice when other people have children.

happygardening · 21/02/2019 11:22

I agree with you that it’s not a choice all have but I’m afraid I don’t believe that funding etc would improve if all MP’s and political donars were “forced” to send their DC’s to state schools and I’m uncomfortable with the idea of anyone being forced to do things and also don’t believe forcing parents to use state ed. be implemented.
Finally I don’t agree that started is poorly funded because of independent education only 7% of UK children are educated in the independent sector its poorly funded because this government made paying off and reducing this countries budget deficit/net borrowing to GDP ratio their priority but at the same time keeping taxes low.

CatkinToadflax · 21/02/2019 11:25

I agree with you OP. My DSs are educated privately because we can just afford it, and the state schools round our way are pretty awful, so we made the choice to go private. We make sacrifices and live pretty frugally in order to afford the fees. But we can manage it, just. Whereas so many others simply can’t.

CatkinToadflax · 21/02/2019 11:27

Cross posted with Slapdasherie - good point re choice vs option.

PlinkPlink · 21/02/2019 11:32

My mum was a nurse at an NHS hospital when she sent me to private school.

I got a bursary with my music.

When even that wouldn't stretch to pay what we needed to, I had to apply for help from music charities.

I had to keep my grades above a certain level and my effort grades too. In exchange, they paid most of my fees.

It is possible to go to private school even when you can't afford it.

AlexaShutUp · 21/02/2019 11:35

What slapdasherie said.

It's a choice that some people are able to make, but it's not an option for everyone.

It was a choice for us. We could have sent dd to a private school because we had the funds to do so. We chose not to.

Some people don't have the financial freedom to make that choice.

RomanyQueen1 · 21/02/2019 11:38

HipHop

That's not what I was saying, at all. The choice is for those that have the money, or those who get substantial bursaries to help, or those whose parents pay, or those that the state pays, but of course everyone can't afford it.

goldengummybear · 21/02/2019 11:40

Yanbu that it's not a choice for everyone.

Yabu to think that state schools would be better funded if private schools were abolished.

I think that the difference between the best and worst state schools would widen. House prices near the best schools would rise sharply and increase the difference between house rises in rich and poor areas. Funding per student would fall as kids don't vote in elections. The people who vote most consistently are well past having kids at school. It seems to me that each Minister for Education doesn't use their money well. They waste it on vanity projects like changing GCSEs, Academies etc You are also assuming that private schools are all the same. Some cater to children with SEN and I get the feeling that it's the section in the state sector that has been cut the most and with the Tories in power, it's the section that will always be under the biggest pressure.

Slowknitter · 21/02/2019 11:45

Confused Sorry but that's nonsense. Something doesn't have to be available to everyone in order to be classified as a choice. There are many, many things that people choose to do or buy in life which are not affordable to others. You can only make choices that you are able to make.

BareBelliedSneetch · 21/02/2019 11:47

More money buys you more options! Shock!

SpeedyBojangles · 21/02/2019 11:48

Of course it's a choice.

It's just not a choice that's open to everybody.

Zinnia · 21/02/2019 11:50

The amount of money that has been spent on the ideologically-driven free school programme makes me want to weep (and yes I know that there are some great free schools out there with provision that is otherwise lacking in the state sector, but contend that these could have been accommodated without completely upending the system). And don't even get me started on LAs being obliged to supply school places but forbidden from opening new maintained schools. Angry

TonTonMacoute · 21/02/2019 11:52

Private schools are just a distraction. What is far more important is the difference in standards in different state schools. Schools in nice middle class areas do so much better than schools in disadvantaged areas, schools in city areas get more than schools in rural areas.

If private schools were closed, and all those pupils went to state schools, the state system would be totally bankrupted. Private school parents pay for the state system, but they don't use it.

RomanyQueen1 · 21/02/2019 13:09

My dh taught at Ampleforth College, I can name it as it was so many years ago now.
One family sold up and lived on a canal barge, moving every 14 days, so their dd could attend the school.
So, some people are prepared to make huge sacrifices too. But of course they have to have the money, or a mix of money and scholarship/bursary.

Life isn't the same for everyone though, some can afford private healthcare, others can die waiting on lists. Some get it free from work, others can die on waiting lists.

Some people can afford high housing costs to be near good state schools, some can afford private tuition to pass 11+.
Some parents find religion because in their area the church schools get better results.
Life isn't fair, you just have to make sure you take the opportunities that present themselves.

As for social mobility, it does still exist but not perhaps at the level we would like it to.

Boulardii · 21/02/2019 13:18

PlonkPlink,
It’s great that your mum made sacrifices and pulled money out of anywhere she could for you to have that advantage. It is a testament to how much parents will do for their children to get well set up to deal with a hugely competitive world.

However it is impossible for every child to be funded in this way. As you mentioned there are terms and conditions attached to bursaries and charitable help. Some people will simply not be able to get it and if everyone applied, think how high the standards would be for the few lucky ones to receive it.

The bursaries do help some. But frankly they are drops in the ocean and are not an answer to the structural inequality in this country which is perpetuated by private schools.

Stopwoofing · 21/02/2019 13:25

What goldengummybear says is exactly what will happen - it already happens with grammar schools. You’ll never stop parents with more means trying to do better for their kids, and why would you want to work against that as long as they are using legal means?

Stopwoofing · 21/02/2019 13:27

Structural inequality is perpetuated by so much more than private schools. What about labour wanting free tuition at the expense of the 50 percent of young adults that don’t make it to university?

So many things need to change to address the worse and worsening life chances you face if you don’t have involved and able parents.

Lichtie · 21/02/2019 13:36

It's still a choice. Buying a Bentley is a choice if you have the cash to do it, but you're not obliged to.

Money in most walks of life's opens up more choices because you can afford more. No point being jealous of what you don't have, you either have to accept what your choices are or work a way of expanding your choices.

RomanyQueen1 · 21/02/2019 13:42

You are assuming that private schools are better than state schools, yet we hear all the time on here how the best schools are state schools, those beautiful well achieving comps, in leafy surroundings.
Education threads are so funny on here, there's either no difference or private education is much worse or much better.
Mnet doesn't appear to know which Grin

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