Private schools charity status: Is 'nicking' poor but bright DCs from the state sector the answer??

[miljee]

as in via scholarships? Personally I don't think they should be allowed to get around the Charity Commission in this way. They're supposed to be 'of benefit to their community'- surely pulling in the clever DCs from the local state schools merely 'degrades' the state school but improves the exam results for the private school? Would we be happy with that as a solution??

I've never quite understood the purpose of pointing out that those who use private schools also pay for state provision. It's unquestionably true, so it can't be debated. File under The Bleeding Obvious. But so what? (People who use private healthcare also pay for the NHS. And??) Is the suggestion that they should not do so?...

Sigh... my point is that you somehow appear to think you are hard done by because you don't get tax rebates and apparently all poor people do and are off living the life of riley. That is just not true.

The idea that people who choose to send their children to private schools are somehow worse off than everyone else, somehow harder working, more deserving, more caring than everyone else, is a. offensive and b. rubbish. And I suspect you know it.

Wow, UQD!

Well, I don't lose sleep over being hard done by by this awful government.

I could feel hard done by by their inability to provide acceptable schools.

I do feel that their arbitrary cut of for tax rebates is extremely crude in that it does not take account of family size. There's no reason why they couldn't have built in a sliding scale.

Other than those passing opinions, I pretty much count my blessings.

I don't think I have particularly complained on this thread.

However, having been on many of these types of threads, I have observed that many of the squealers have not really studied and then worked hard enough or for a particularly long time. I would not have been able to afford private schools if I had left school with unimpressive qualifications, or if I had started a family soon after graduation...

It's hardly rocket science.

I agree with edam.[GRIN]
ST-What is your point?

science teacher - so you just worked harder than me and thats why your children get a private education?

Well the converse would not have been true!

Am I the only person who reads these threads and thinks 'Thank Christ I wasn't tempted to send my kids to private school?'

LOL At the squealers. What do you mean , ST?
Those without a solid education don't deserve to get their children ionto good schools?
I am sure I don't need to tell you that there are myriad reasons people don't do well at school.
Doesn't mean they deserve any less than you. They may have other traits which are commendable that you may not possess.

And what exactly do you know about the educational qualifications and career status of posters who have questioned your assertions that parents who use private education are 'better' than the rest of us, ST?

i seriously cant believe that you think you are deserving of a better life for your children than mine...becuase i didn't work as hard as you

i can't believe anyone really thinks that seriously wow.

what's even more worrying is that she's apparently a teacher so no doubt passing these prejudices on to a whole new generation...

work harder

that term is so loaded.

her description of working harder is studying for success and planned parenthood.

Gosh, and there was I thinking that private schools weren't better....

Make up your minds, ladies.

i never said private schools weren't better - or even infered it - maybe your edumication isn't as good as you thought

i'm stuck on the 'i am better than you' thing

Let's phrase it another way...

If you doss around at school, and then work for a few years in an unskilled job, are you entitled to private education for your children?

Where does your quote come from, btw?

Or are you just throwing mud for the sake of it?

"....." is a quote

so for unclarity - those were my own words as summation- no mud slignign here

of course not - i dont think that if you piss about your whole life you are entitled to it - that is not the point at all

i think that there are a vast number of scenarios inbetween

study hard for success and plan parenthood

and

cant be arsed at school - waster

however the way you are phrasing things seems to suggest that you afford some kind of superiority for the former and those who don't achieve it are the latter.

It is mudslinging when you try to tell someone what they have said or what they believe, when you have absolutely no evidence of this.

It is quite wrong to take someone's words around quite a narrow topic and extrapolate, and then present this extrapolation as some kind of truth.

For another point of view. I send my kids to private school though I teach in the state sector like quite a few other MNetters. I do not see why private schools should get charitable status any more than private hospitals or private nurseries without being able to prove that they are actually benefiting the community actually. Sharing facilities, teaching experience, allowing access to certain classes for state school pupils which aren't offered at school etc etc all seem reasonable ideas to me.

And I don't think that I or my kids are better or harder working or more deserving because they go to private school. Just very lucky actually.

I'd like to ask how abolishing independent schools might make state schools better?

I think ST probably means the less well off pay less income tax, which is true for the vast majority of the population. Although a private equity executive pays no tax on the first £9,200 (CGT-free personal allowance for 08/09 tax year) then 18% flat rate on all gains thereafter.

what's this rubbish about anyone being entitled to private education? Anyone with enough money can pay school fees. Doesn't make the parent particularly clever, or special, or worthy, just means you have money. Big wow.

And I find the argument that if you do well at school you can afford private education bizarre. Most teachers, for instance, don't earn enough to pay school fees. Or engineers, or people in dozens of careers that require a university degree.

Less well off pay a greater proportion of their income in tax. Wealthy might pay more in total because they have more to start with. But as a proportion of their income, they get off lightly.