Is anyone else worried about the effect of rising private school fees on state schools?

[BabyIcecream]

Where I live there already aren't enough school places. Three big state secondary's, one is catholic, they are all over subscribed and bursting at the seams using old buildings with not enough funding.

Ive seen reports that at some private schools upto a third of pupils might leave if the fees go up due to VAT.

I'm worried about all these extra pupils needing places, DS already finds his school overcrowded and whilst I don't agree with private education putting extra pupils into the state system is just going to further disadvantage our children.

Unless money raised by increasing private schools costs is going to be used to fund state education? Does anyone know?

Rishi Sunak?

The truth is, the middle classes also believe they are entitled to a lot more stuff than the elite think they deserve. It’s probably quite amusing to watch the middle class pips squeak as they get thrown under the bus with everyone else.

Plenty of middle class get more out of state schools, be it grammar or house price related

If parents are invested dc tend to do well

@EasternStandard only if you have got good state schools near you. We don't and I wasn't going to let DDs education suffer. How can even bright kids learn when teachers are getting slashed with blades, the local dealers are outside the gates and anyone who does well in school gets bullied?

Yes I see what you mean. It’s very different depending where you are.

@Araminta1003 Have you heard of the Industrial Revolution?

Yes @Walkaround but a middle class person earning 120-150k might have options to go and work in eg Germany, Singapore, Switzerland, US, Australia, Canada or Dubai etc instead- so if their quality of life deteriorated to such a level they only get 40p in a £1 then surely they take their education and qualifications with them, usually having sold an asset or two for their journey. A poor and ill person won’t have that option. So you can’t throw the middle classes under the bus, at least not the young working ones, because despite Brexit, they will still get snapped up by other countries.

@Teddleshon - it is clearly a post-industrial society we now live in so why is that relevant?
Or are you going to come up with some Tech Revolution thing? Maybe we shouldn’t be driving all our academics abroad.

@Araminta1003 - have you not noticed the state of the world at the moment? It is a race to the bottom, and whilst the UK may be doing well in that race in many ways, climate change, corruption, tax avoidance, tax evasion, uncontrollable mass migration, global conflict and habitat destruction are reducing the number of agreeable places the middle classes can run away to. There are too many middle classes and not enough middle class havens. Plenty of places with their own unique problems, of course.

That’s a new take. Usually it’s the U.K. that’s gets this post

There are places to go

How many times are you going to post this?

Well, of course there are places to go. None are 100% appealing.

As many times as it takes for people to take the point. 😘

It’s unappealing when it comes to the middle classes. When it’s Drs and nurses they’re leaving in ‘droves’

Too bad you can’t really make the point, because if you could people would have got it the first time.

@EasternStandard - well, if we are a country which cannot afford to pay them properly, I’m not surprised. Where do you propose to get the money from? Telling people earning too little to pay tax that they are lazy and not contributing enough? Is that working? The people who can afford to pay the doctors and nurses properly are already footloose and fancy free with their money safely offshore, so they can just follow them when they want medical advice, can’t they? The rest of the population already can’t afford them.

I don't understand the hatred towards the middle class. Isn't that meant to be an aspirational segment of society?

I don’t hate the middle class. I am middle class.

Yes everyone is footloose and free bar the people who need others to pay for them.

So be wise about who you get to stay and who you push away.

I have no control whatsoever over who stays or goes. There is no party to vote for that is protecting the middle classes.

Labour are doing a good job at going for them though for votes. And people are reacting well

We could probably get rid of more high earners if we tried hard enough. Then what?

State dependency is on the edge as it is

And doctors are the epitome of the middle class. Teachers are middle class. Nurses are middle class.

They also are public sector so require state funds

Everything needs funding and that’s mostly higher taxpayers

Drive them out and good luck

Given that the rich pay a smaller proportion of their income in tax than nurses, doesn't it make more sense to increase the number of nurses if one wants a larger tax take?
Additionally those who are not super rich are more more likely to spend the money they earn in their local economy boosting that as well, everyone's a winner.

@jgw1 what’s your definition of rich? Are many nurses paying the 45% income tax rate?