How many kids do you know definitely leaving private for state?

[Quodraceratops]

I'd be very interested to know how many children people know of who are definitely leaving their private school for a state school - not people with plans to do so in future years, solely those definitely going now / in 2025.
For myself - large Scottish all years school, I only have knowledge of my early primary kids's classes - no-one leaving so far (but I'm guessing early primary may be less affected as Labour have been signalling this policy for a while so you wouldn't start if you couldn't afford VAT).

Politics of envy.

This is one of the main issues for me (the other being that I don't believe it will actually result in an economic benefit but I appreciate that is open to debate for now). There's a huge postcode lottery (amongst other factors). Increase the income tax for all higher earners and make us all contribute.

They have already ruled out any change in NI, income tax and VAT. So any more tax rises have to come from other areas.

Maybe.

But Labour are currently in power, and we're not seeing those better decisions now, despite their children being in state school and many of their voters having children in state school.

They could raise basic rate income tax by 1% - immediately raising £7.5 billion per year - and use that to directly increase the per pupil funding formula by £750 per current state school student.

That would cost someone working full time on NMW £80 per year and someone on the UK average £35k salary £224 per year.

Which of these do you think would improve state education more :
a) push 10-15% of private school children into state schools (maybe changing the priorities of 100k voters. Out of 27.5 million UK voters)
b) increase the funding formula by £750 per year for each current state school student

I would say that extra curriculars are the major difference between my DC’s grammar and my other DC’s private. The private has a much stronger offering. However, the grammar has superior outcomes as far as academic performance and university entrance. It’s not that the private school has bad outcomes, the grammar is exceptional.

And @noblegiraffe I don’t see anyone saying that there is not much difference. However, I think you would be surprised if you visited some private schools. Most of the preps I looked at had far worse facilities than my (at the time) local primary which was shiny and new. One of the preps had just got its first interactive white board!!!

Class size is usually an obvious difference but my DC at state grammar is in a class of 25 and my privately educated DC is in a class of 23, so there genuinely isn’t much difference between class sizes.

Yes, the private school does get more funding per pupil BUT capital projects, teachers pension scheme contributions and scholarships and bursaries for other pupils are all paid out of that funding at the private school. So the difference is not as big as it first seems.

In other news

Labour’s VAT raid sparks bidding wars near top state schools (telegraph.co.uk)

But it's Torygraph of course

You all know full well that Labour wouldn't be in government if they had said they were going to raise income tax and had to rule it out repeatedly.

The media, and the Conservatives, and by default the voters, would have crucified them (and indeed tried to) so it is disingenuous to claim now that they could have put that in their manifesto.

I expect we will see tax rises in other areas around CGT etc. in the budget.

I just don't think that's true. There was a 2% NI drop just 6 months previously, they could have spun it that this wasn't sustainable.

They got a landslide, which was nothing to do with tax promises - and it was obvious before they ruled out tax rises that would be the case.

Labour are responsible for their own choices.

Can anyone explain how adding more teachers with the money raised is going to keep them in the job? Why didn't they say they'd put it towards spending per pupil rather than adding new (presumably freshly qualified) teachers to a system where teachers with decades of experience are leaving in droves?

I have pulled my child out of an SEN specialist school; which we have been funding and he is joining his sibling at our local (but thankfully very good) state school. He seems to be managing well so far but will need ongoing adjustments and regular communication with teachers to ensure he can manage in a non- specialist environment.

Labour has made no commitment to actually increasing overall school funding. They have announced specific programs they intend to implement, such as hiring 6500 teachers. However, they have not stated that they will actually increase overall school funding by £1.5bn or, indeed, any amount. They can keep per-pupil funding at the same levels as before and simply demand that schools find more efficiencies or choose other programs to cut. That is not without precedent.

Also this from the Telegraph today, so not sure we can count them as a news source

Sorry, didn't upload

And these nestled side by side

The Telegraph has gone full batshit Daily Mail since Labour won. Noticeably.

How is putting cash into your pension AVOIDING tax? We should all be saving into our pensions?

How is pulling your kids out of private schools to take the state place every child is entitled to avoiding tax? It isn’t.

Because the emphasis on all of those articles are about paying as little tax as possible.

So the sudden declarations about everyone happy to pay more income tax instead doesn't ring true.

The reason it’s good tax is that it removes a subsidy, and people will cry about it but pay it.

No child will go without education because of it, and demographics mean that even if there are more state school students, the system can absorb them.

it’s also very popular.

So long as the tax is fairly imposed (I.e across the board rather than just PS parents) I have no issue with anyone doing anything legal to minimise tax. I pay pension by salary sacrifice, I pay into ISAs, when I was younger I used to work PT in order to keep my salary below 100k in order to get free nursery hours. These are all legal - but I equally have no issue if they want to increase the additional rate tax - I'll just pay more on the part of my salary that is taxed at that rate.

Please explain how this is a subsidy. You don't seem to be very well informed.

You come onto a thread a thread where the topic is, How many kids do you know definitely leaving private for state? You have nothing to add to that topic, but instead you rock up and demand the existence of private schools. Posters don’t ignore you, they give you sincere answers.

You then accuse them of insisting that everyone should care about the tax on private schools.

I think it’s more the case that they are discussing a topic of common interest and you have barged in and demanded that they justify their personal choices.

People are allowed to discuss common concerns and have solidarity. On a public forum there is nothing to stop you from heckling them.

But it was clearly not the purpose of this thread to harangue all and sundry about the societal benefits of private schools. Rather it was to discuss whether posters had direct evidence of students moving schools. You wanted a broader debate and you got it.

it’s also very popular.

I simply can’t think why.

I’ve explained this upthread many times and I am not going to do it again.

What annoys me the most about certain posters who are pro VAT on private schools is that those of us who are state school parents ourselves get heckled as well! Come on!

There are plenty of state school parents who do not want a nanny state and be told how to bring up our kids etc down to every minute detail. And we are perfectly entitled to be against this brainwashing policy!