To have though of a fairer way to fund state education than VAT on private?

[wlakaaf]

State schools are in desperate need of funding.

Money needs raising.

Instead of sticking 20% onto private fees - when those people are already paying 100% of the costs for educating their child, how about this:

Parents of children currently in state schools ought to contribute to their education on a means tested basis. There would be no argument over means, it would be a simple reference to the council tax band of the house you live in. We have bands A-H. I would propose that people in band A-F pay nothing. People in band G pay a fixed charge per year and people in band H pay a higher fixed charge per year.

Keir Starmer has used money to buy a massively expensive house, worth in the region of £2m, in the very tight catchment of a lovely state primary. This is buying privilege, same as buying private education. So why does he get away without paying?

Heating is a necessity. Far better to raise taxes.

Parents with children who live in higher council bands already pay more tax. What do you think that tax funds?

Hmm... do we have a separate tax for secondary school education? Nope. The OP proposed a separate tax but one that's linked to council tax. That's hardly the same as council tax or even income tax now is it?

So you either pay more for your house, or you pay school feed

I'm sorry you object to the VERY reasonable idea of VAT on the service you get from a school, I mean, well I don't want to pay my bathroom fitter vat, but i do.

Any! Profit making business should and must pay tax

As a point of information, Starmer has lived in his current house for more than 20 years!

1. University isn’t compulsory
2. The money stays in the same Borough? So the most deprived areas stay more deprived while the rich Borough’s schools get richer?
3. How do you think schools are funded now?
4. What about those of us who don’t have kids? Are we getting a refund?
5. The idea that we should tax the public to subsidise private schools is up there with one of the daftest things I’ve ever read on here

Like the VAT proposal on private school fees, we can all always pay a little more for the privilegeof educatingour children to the right standard. Especially the wealthy band G and H parents who live in the most expensive houses and who currently benefit from free secondary education.
Proportional progressive tax specially allocated to the secondary schools in the borough, with any excess redistributed for fairness. We would all benefit for paying a little bit of secondary school tax to adequately fund the schools during the period our children are in those schools.

Should we have an extra tax if you’re rich and need to use the NHS?

What about a pot hole tax for those well off people relying on the Council to fix their pot holes?

Might as well throw a primary school tax in too for those well to do parents exploiting the system by sending their kids to private school.

And those well off dickheads getting their bins emptied when they could afford to pay for private refuse to come every week? Tax them!

If you’re using a luxury service pay your tax. If you don’t want to, then don’t use it.

And it’s always been in the catchment for Eleanor Palmer and his eldest is 17-18? I think it was a sensible purchase and I don’t blame them.

And they could have sent their daughter to Camden School for Girls (probably) but didn’t.

i don’t agree with the OP btw.

Great. And given a lot of those children will grow up to be our doctors, nurses, teachers, solicitors etc., well all benefit. Let’s all pay a bit more. We’ll increase taxes to ensure the schools are fit for purpose. Totally on board with that.

And any parent who, in the meantime, wants to pay for a luxury service for their child’s service can pay the VAT due on the fees. Think how good our state schools will be. So good that parents might be able to stop using private schools altogether. Sorted!

His eldest is 15. Very forward thinking, buying five years before having a baby. Or maybe they just liked the house and area.

The proposed VAT on private schools is a mere drop in the ocean of the education budget and the benefit across all the state schools will be the square root of bugger all! It'll have no benefit whatsoever and it's entirely the politics of envy!

@Ppejfhfhrhhfhf many people buy in good catchment areas before they have children

Agree this makes sense. Why stop at Private school? I think tax rich people across board. Band G&H, taxed! Spend over 15k a year on holiday, taxed ( that means you can afford private school) Buy a new car with more than £30k? Taxed! There are lots and lots of ways to tax the rich, the government should definitely use all these avenues!!

It’s not the politics of envy. It’s the politics of non-charities losing their charitable status. They are not charities, they are businesses, they need to pay VAT. I don’t care what the money goes to, of course it won’t make any real difference to state schools. But it will ensure that businesses pay the tax owed.

On MN many posters state the reason that they use Private Schools is because the State Schools where they live are dire.

They could have done with following the Starmes example.

I’m not sure that most people appreciate the nuance. It very much seems that they don’t actually care and just want to punish those working to improve the prospects of their dc.

I’ve no skin in the game at this point. One kid is sitting A’ Levels and the other is already paid up to the end so will avoid the VAT. I still think the policy stinks and won’t generate anywhere near the income suggested. I also think it unfairly penalises those who want to improve their lot and that of their dc. People seem to forget that those with dc in private school are already saving the state money. Many of them also pay a huge amount of tax on their earnings. I actually have no issue with taxation but to me this is a principle issue. Why should one group who already pay more than their fair share pay more simply to educate their dc?

You've got some good points here, I think people using private healthcare should be taxed, after all we've got the NHS. All the people who are travelling abroad for all kinds of surgery should be taxed!

On MN every parent with a kid in private school is selflessly struggling and giving up holidays to pay the fees of their SN child who can't be catered for in the state sector.

The point is that nobody HAS to send their child to a private school, this is a luxury and like all luxuries is likely to be taxed in some way

Every person on MN decides whether policies will be good or bad by asking themselves "Will this impact me negatively or positively?"

If the answer is positively, then do it.
If the answer is negatively, then no, don't do it.

Are we not bored yet?!

The UK government already charges new immigrants an insurance premium to use the NHS. We can safely acknowledge that we are already, all of us, heading towards paying some sort of health insurance premium across the board in the not too distant future.
The UK government simply cannot afford to maintain the same level of financial support for these public services that we take for granted anymore.
The UK economy has irrevocably changed so that now, the government has to rely on taxation rather than exporting goods and services for income.
The VAT on private school fees will only raise a small amount relative to what's needed. If all state school parents also contribute proportionately to funding secondary school while our children are in the state secondary schools, we can begin to make a real difference to the quality of education they receive.

Private school parents are not unique in paying a huge amount of tax on their earnings, nor are they unique in wanting to improve the lot of their DC. Private schools are not charities, and should be taxed accordingly.

I totally agree! If you can afford 15K a year for several years then you can afford to move house! The fact is they chose private when their local state school is absolutely fine but they want their precious child to have something ‘better’. I live somewhere with excellent state schools, everyday kids get onto public transport to private schools. Someone I know inspected the local school, her own grandchildren get sent to private and she was in despair at the waste of money as had seen herself that the local school was superb. But no, her son wanted something ‘better’ for his special child. And I bet he’s complaining about the business he chooses to send his child to finally having to pay VAT.