Request a state school place if you want it or not

[clarkkentsglasses]

This email is doing the rounds aimed at private school parents:

"The idea is to try to flood the Council with requests for urgent school places from September. If they get tens of thousands of emails like this we may see them under pressure."

Basically request a state school place if you want it or not.

No one is blaming Labour for the last 14 years. The point is that Labour aren’t suggesting anything which will lead to great improvements. It’s possible to disagree with Labour’s VAT policy and agree that the Conservatives have been far from good. Disagreeing with Labour doesn’t automatically mean someone is in favour of the Conservatives. This is why so many of the electorate are struggling to know who to give their vote to.

But Labours education policy has been about everyone being treated the same for decades. Comprehensive schools fail so many children because they are one size fits all institutions.

Absolutely. I didn’t vote Tory or Labour at the last election and won’t be voting for either of them at this election.

The NHS is a mixture of all of those. Pooling resources - since it's a huge complex organisation paid for out of taxes. Insurance against needing help ourselves because we are sometimes healthy and sometimes need very expensive care - and it's available when we need it. And community since with our system of progressive taxation the less wealthy pay less than their equal average per capita share of the costs over their lifetime and the more wealthy pay more than their equal average per capita share of the costs (allowing for the 'insurance' element since health is uncertain)

And of course there are other ways healthcare could be organised, shared and paid for. In some countries, everyone pays doctors directly out of their income when they need it. Generally people value some kind of 'insurance against needing help', but that can be done with actual insurance like in America.

I'm very in favour of the NHS. I think the 'pooling resources' structure makes it very efficient. I certainly don't want to change it. But it's very blinkered to think that there aren't alternative ways for people to pay for healthcare.

Policing is clearly 'pooling resources'. There's a balance in deciding how much of the UK's resources should go into each service. More resources obviously means that service will work better, but then there are fewer resources available for other services so those won't work so well. Or else fewer resources for supporting the vulnerable. People will have different opinions on the best way to balance it all.

@Dibblydoodahdah

"Comprehensive schools fail so many children because they are one size fits all institutions."

Comprehensive schools actually provide an excellent education to the overwhelming majority of students that study at them.

I’m not blaming Labour…but they are the ones that want me to pay even more tax although the tax burden is at the highest it’s been for 70 years all the while whilst saying that they are not putting tax up for working people. Is that meant to make me want to vote for them? And it’s going to raise little or no revenue so why are they doing it? It shows that they cannot be trusted.

Knowing the jobs that a lot of parents at my DD's school do, it is so absurd to make a generalisation that not many care about social justice. These threads are so full of people making sweeping generalisations about private schools - but in reality, they haven't a clue and just show their resentment towards what they perceive to be certain sections of society.

No they don’t. Utter rubbish.

To be fair, they clearly aren't worried about the "underwhelming minority".

@Dibblydoodahdah You're playing with semantics with that "working people" point, you know very well its shorthand for people on average incomes.

This will raise revenue.

Most people will still pay.

The carefully characterised sob stories are not representative of the vast majority of people who privately educate their children.

Most families will make minor adjustments to their discretionary spending.

@Dibblydoodahdah

Yes they do.

The majority of people who go to comprehensives leave with qualifications that allow them to continue with life. They support a great many people very well.

The fact that you dismiss this is rather telling.

Thank you @Aladdinzane for speaking sense.

@Dibblydoodahdah why do you think Aladinzane is talking rubbish? She's staring facts.

No, I’m not playing with semantics at all. I think you’ll find that it’s the Labour Party who are doing that. If they mean people on average incomes, that’s what they should say.

It won’t raise much if any revenue. A 10% move to state means that it earns nothing.

And you keep going on about the vast majority, 90% is the vast majority but that still means that it makes no money.

Clearly you’re not bother about the minority. Shame on me for caring!

Is it…because I went to comprehensive school myself. I did well despite of my education not because of it. 30 years later the same school is still failing children despite being an “outstanding” school. Oh, and there’s a lot more to school than qualifications.

@Aladdinzane why do you teach in a private school rather than a state school?

The carefully characterised sob stories are not representative of the vast majority of people who privately educate their children.

Quite.

Great. There are loads of state school places.

I've taught in both across my entire career.

Should one only be able to do one?

Why do you think I shouldn't teach in a private?

@ThursdayTomorrow Where? It’s very patchy.

The carefully characterised sob stories are not representative of the vast majority of people who privately educate their children

I’m really not sure what to say about this. It’s at least the second snide little comment I’ve seen that suggests some of us invent our reasons for our children attending (in my case a small and unremarkable) private school. I’m pretty sure DS was actually born four months prematurely with permanent disabilities due to a supreme NHS fuck-up and I didn’t just make that up to suit my private-school-parent excuse narrative. As for social justice, DH and I both work full time for charities. Unsurprisingly, because we work for charities, we are not higher rate tax payers. We also volunteer for another charity and our local theatre. If you believe my carefully characterised sob story then does that let me off? Do I count as not being one of the vast majority?

Why do you think I shouldn't teach in a private?

@Aladdinzane I don’t think that. But, as you have pointed out, private schools are for the privileged few and there is a shortage of teachers in state schools. Therefore, since you have also pointed out that you are a brilliant teacher, maybe you could help the less privileged by teaching in one.

Some teachers aren’t so brilliant when faced with 30 in a class and lots of disruptive sen children! They would struggle so stick to what suits them best and longer holidays!

I think people who work for charities make the decision they don’t really need the money others make. Certainly the work is at a slower pace.

@Barbadossunset

There are lots of great teachers in the state sector. I did 25 years in it :)

I think this is a little bit of a Tu Quoque argument though

But it is simply disingenuous not to accept that your situation is the exception and not the rule.

@CatkinToadflax

It wasn't a snide remark, it was intended to show that a lot of the stories which are written here are "other people", the two doctors living with their 4 children in a 3 bed house and spending half a million on education, because they "value" it more. There have been examples like this ad infinitum.

Also as @Onomatofear states, stories like yours are the exception, rather than the rule.