Labour’s plans for VAT on Private Schools

[Busydadof2]

The Labour Party has proposed introduction of VAT on private schools.

In the scheme of things the money they will bring in from this is tiny compared with total expenditure on state schools, while it will drive more burden on the state system as some parents leave private schools. I think this is a populist ploy to get traditional Labour voters to vote for what is in any other sense a centrist party.

Have you considered signing this petition to make sure the policy gets scrutinised and the weight of public sentiment against it is known?

Change.org petition: Stop Labour from adding 20% VAT to private school fees and forcing kids to change schools

www.change.org/p/stop-labour-from-adding-20-vat-to-private-school-fees-and-forcing-kids-to-change-schools

Various perspectives from the signatories of this vote come to mind and resonate with our own situation, including this: “I work in a state school with over 30 in a class and oversubscribed. My 2 kids went or go to private schools and we have sacrificed loads to do this. We are NOT wealthy, many of the kids at the school I work at live in bigger houses and have much more disposable income than we do. We chose to send our kids to private school rather than live in a bigger house instead of our semi detached on a main road. We holiday in the UK every year and I work full time. I buy my clothes on the high street or in charity shops. Many parents at the school my kids attend are in exactly the same situation. I agree there are some very wealthy parents there too and the addition of VAT will not even make an impact on them, they will pay it without batting an eyelid. All this will do is push the kids like ours back into an already oversubscribed state system, increase class sizes even more and create a bigger divide as private education will become truly elitist.”

[KonTikki]

Private schools - squeeze them until they squeak would be my preferred policy.

[thefallen]

@KonTikki

Private schools - squeeze them until they squeak would be my preferred policy.

Same. Private education is a luxury. Luxuries should be subject to VAT.

[MsCarrieBradshaw]

Private education is a luxury, not a need. It should be taxed.

You quote someone who says they’re not rich but can afford the fees for two people, own their house, go on holiday every year. If they can afford the fees, they are wealthy compared to a lot of families in the UK! A lot people can’t afford to own property and never go on holiday. They struggle to feed their children.

[ilovebreadsauce]

I think you are flogging a dead horse there op. 94% families use state schools and nearly all of them will be in favour of adding vat to private s hools

[Moonpig82]

Signed thanks for sharing

[TheLostOnes]

The weight of public sentiment isn't against this policy. I suspect that most don't care either way as it's not something that affects them.

There won't be a huge exodus of students leaving. Some perhaps but not enough to overwhelm state schools. Is it only labour driven price hikes that will force people out? People were happy to swallow the Tory (Liz Truss) price hikes due to inflation?

If you can afford two private school fees you are wealthy. Regardless of whether you look around at other wealthy people in your circles who haven't chosen to spend their money on education and see that they have more than you, you are wealthy. Having maybe around £30k to spare annually by making 'sacrifices' in day to day living is not something the average person could do.

Private education already is elitist. Some can afford it, some can't. Where that affordability line lies is irrelevant to most people's lives. Shame for those who will just fall on wrong side of it but sometimes we just can't afford everything we would like to.

[Meadowfinch]

No it isn't a luxury. My ds wants to do Alevel Maths, Physics & DT. Leading to a degree in engineering. None of the state sixth forms can offer that except one 27 miles away and there's no bus. The council won't provide transport. A taxi every day would cost more than school fees.

Private is our only option.

[Meadowfinch]

Signed.

[RedHelenB]

@Meadowfinch

No it isn't a luxury. My ds wants to do Alevel Maths, Physics & DT. Leading to a degree in engineering. None of the state sixth forms can offer that except one 27 miles away and there's no bus. The council won't provide transport. A taxi every day would cost more than school fees.

Private is our only option.

No state provision offer maths and physics within a 27 mile radius. I find that very hard to believe.

[Meadowfinch]

@TheLostOnes Incidentally, I am a single mum, my ds is on a 50% scholarship - academic, maths. I've mortgaged my soul to get him this far because even Ofsted said the state alternative wasn't safe, and subsequently wound up the trust.

No, I'm not rich. Honestly, you really don't have a clue.

[Meadowfinch]

@RedHelenB Whether you do or not is immaterial. Local 6th form college doesn't offer A level's at all. Nor the 6th form college in the next town. One school that offers Maths & Physics but not DT, 17 miles away.

To do all three, the closest is 27 miles.

[youmustrememberthis]

Private school is a luxury creating an unfair advantage purely by luck of birth which results in over representation in many professional careers.

I think the policy is great and hope that it does have an impact and reduce the number of private schools.

[RedHelenB]

@Meadowfinch

@RedHelenB Whether you do or not is immaterial. Local 6th form college doesn't offer A level's at all. Nor the 6th form college in the next town. One school that offers Maths & Physics but not DT, 17 miles away.

To do all three, the closest is 27 miles.

Edited

You must really live in the middle of nowhere then, because ive never heard of 6th form college not offering A level at all but maths and physics will get him on an engineering course at a top uni and you do have that option. Or you could move closer to civilisation, you have choices

[TinyYellow]

It would be lovely if we could genuinely say that all private school pupils were there for luxury instead of need, but that would ignore many many children who do have needs that the state system was failing to meet.

I know a few children who have gone to private school because of their SEN. Some are let down by the state system completely and some are catered for adequately but not brilliantly. There are others in private school paid for by the council because even they recognise the state system can’t meet the needs of the child.

It is small minded jealousy that leads to people feeling strongly about VAT on private school fees, nothing else. There is no real benefit to anyone by charging it, but a lot of potential disruption to families if they do.

[lavenderlou]

@Meadowfinch

No it isn't a luxury. My ds wants to do Alevel Maths, Physics & DT. Leading to a degree in engineering. None of the state sixth forms can offer that except one 27 miles away and there's no bus. The council won't provide transport. A taxi every day would cost more than school fees.

Private is our only option.

The fact that you have to be wealthy enough to be able to opt to pay for it makes it a luxury. There will be plenty of people whose state schools don't provide the subjects their DC want to who couldn't afford private school fees so they just suck it up.

Sorting out the dire funding and working conditions in state schools so they are able to recruit teachers in different subject areas it what is needed and will not be achieved under a Tory government.

[Hobbi]

@Meadowfinch

@RedHelenB Whether you do or not is immaterial. Local 6th form college doesn't offer A level's at all. Nor the 6th form college in the next town. One school that offers Maths & Physics but not DT, 17 miles away.

To do all three, the closest is 27 miles.

Edited

Well perhaps the elite will start to care about state provision if some of them have to consider using it. That's been the case in countries where private education has been made difficult to access.

[CurlewKate]

I find it very hard to believe that there is no provision for A levels within 27 miles of anywhere on n the UK. Unless we're talking the middle of the Scottish Highmands or something.

[Meadowfinch]

@RedHelenB Err...most north Hampshire schools are without sixth forms. Colleges locally provide btecs which don't give the same UCAS points.

Perhaps people should educate themselves on the facts before making foolish policy decisions.

[CurlewKate]

@TinyYellow "It is small minded jealousy that leads to people feeling strongly about VAT on private school fees, nothing else.

No it isn't.

[Hobbi]

@TinyYellow

It would be lovely if we could genuinely say that all private school pupils were there for luxury instead of need, but that would ignore many many children who do have needs that the state system was failing to meet.

I know a few children who have gone to private school because of their SEN. Some are let down by the state system completely and some are catered for adequately but not brilliantly. There are others in private school paid for by the council because even they recognise the state system can’t meet the needs of the child.

It is small minded jealousy that leads to people feeling strongly about VAT on private school fees, nothing else. There is no real benefit to anyone by charging it, but a lot of potential disruption to families if they do.

The SEN issue always comes up in these discussions and it's really a red herring. One of the few aspects of education that the UK does well is specialist SEN schools. Unfortunately, we're not good at funding them. So the private option highlights the destruction of state provision since 2010. It's still a luxury not accessible to most.

[Clearinguptheclutter]

This policy could affect me (detrimentally) but I think it’s the right policy generally so I won’t be signing.

I agree with the principle but I don’t think it’s well thought through. It should be introduced gradually eg. For new students not existing ones and some of the extra VAT should fund extra bursaries. I do worry about the impact of local state schools having to find lots of extra places. The schools near me are all oversubscribed as it is.

I also suspect what will happen longer term is the middle class parents who otherwise would have paid for private will instead use the money to buy houses very close to the best state schools. Thus eventually pushing poorer families out of the catchment for those schools. While they would have got a place if those middle class kids went to private.

of course, in an ideal world there wouldn’t be good schools and bad schools but that doesn’t sound realistic

[ShareTheDuvet]

I do get tired of this “we’re not wealthy we sacrifice everything to send our kids private” nonsense. Private schools round here are minimum £15k a year, most people have two kids, if you can afford that while still paying a mortgage, having a holiday every year etc you are considerably wealthier than the vast majority of families in this country 🙄

[Notsandwiches]

My daughter's in private school because she was being bullied and her state school did feck all. Her Grandad paid.

Signed.

[TheLostOnes]

@TinyYellow

It would be lovely if we could genuinely say that all private school pupils were there for luxury instead of need, but that would ignore many many children who do have needs that the state system was failing to meet.

I know a few children who have gone to private school because of their SEN. Some are let down by the state system completely and some are catered for adequately but not brilliantly. There are others in private school paid for by the council because even they recognise the state system can’t meet the needs of the child.

It is small minded jealousy that leads to people feeling strongly about VAT on private school fees, nothing else. There is no real benefit to anyone by charging it, but a lot of potential disruption to families if they do.

I honestly don't think that many people do feel all that strongly on it though. I don't. However threads like this will wind people up when they get filled with people making 'sacrifices' that apparently the rest of us don't bother making because we don't care enough about education. It's not jealousy that drives people in their annoyances on this issues - it's irritation that people can't see outside their own bubble and appreciate that they are privileged (regardless of their pleas to the contrary) if they are able to make the choice to go private. There often aren't that many 'this is an amazing policy because fuck the rich' posts on these types of threads

[Trufflump]

@TinyYellow

It would be lovely if we could genuinely say that all private school pupils were there for luxury instead of need, but that would ignore many many children who do have needs that the state system was failing to meet.

I know a few children who have gone to private school because of their SEN. Some are let down by the state system completely and some are catered for adequately but not brilliantly. There are others in private school paid for by the council because even they recognise the state system can’t meet the needs of the child.

It is small minded jealousy that leads to people feeling strongly about VAT on private school fees, nothing else. There is no real benefit to anyone by charging it, but a lot of potential disruption to families if they do.

No real benefit to anyone? Have you thought about what 1.6bn could fund??