All Private School Parents Should Get State School Places to Fight Back VAT

[LondonSam]

All Private School Parents Should Get State School Places to Fight Back VAT

Ha ha ha, I have a DC at state school!!!! Shame you edited your post after I had responded to it.

Grow up

where's the jealousy? quote me the jealousy

Oh and where did I say that I wanted state schools to fail? You made that up and it shows that you have zero idea about who sends their kids to private school because, like me, there are lots of parents who have kids in both sectors.

@Halfemptyhalfling

"High earners appear to have bankrupted the UK rather than bankrolled it via profit taking and debt loaded companies"

I think this post raised see a really important growing sentiment.

46% of all income earners pay no income tax. The top 1% of income earners pay 30% of all income tax receipts and the top 0.3% (or 100k people) pay 25% of all income tax receipts:

Now it has always been the case that the rich paid more in taxes than the poor. Despite this there is a growing sentiment from the wealthy that they are seen as the problem or enemy by things like sending their children to private schools or "bankrupting the UK", "taking profits" , loading companies with debt etc.

This is a dangerous sentiment and that economically it is not a smart move and you only need to piss off a small proportion of the 100k to make a big economic difference.

www.somersetwm.co.uk/tax-system-explained-with-beer/

I'm getting seriously pissed off with this nonsense. How are surgeons working for the NHS bankrupting the UK? If it's CEO's of companies you want to go after, why not go after them, instead of clobbering parents with VAT? There is NO profit in running private schools. If there were, Tescos would be running them.

I don't think there is any jealousy here. There is resentment that the playing field for all children is not more level, although none of us is naïve enough to believe that anything short of abolishing all private schools would go near to assisting with that and that would need to be only the beginning.

But I do think there is a massive lack of understanding here of the state sector for many who don't use it (even if they went to state schools themselves because things have changed massively since we were at school) and a lack of understanding of those of us who send our children to state schools when we actually could afford to privately educate but choose not to.

Just as there is a lack of understanding of why some parents choose to financially scrape through the rest of their lives in order to pay for an education which for many will have no better outcome than a state school education.

Parents need to look more closely at how private schools are being run and how spending is decided.

Closer scrutiny here might bring your fees down and sustain the long term future of private schools. Parents are surprisingly passive about questioning where their fees are going.

Most private schools are indeed non-profit making but they recruit governors who only think in terms of profit … take a look at their surpluses, endowments, reserves, cash flow … stockpiling cash in the name of future-proofing (with VAT being the perfect excuse) - they have been aggressively putting up fees for years, largely unchecked. Does any of this actually improve the children’s experience?

This is one of many reasons why I support the policy on VAT—private schools are money-grabbing from parents who aren’t holding them to account on finances.

I really care about the future of independent schools. I just don’t think that the way they are being run at the moment will safeguard that future - there need to be more checks and balances. Starting with parents. Transfer your energies toward holding your individual private schools to account. Your children will thank you (and so might theirs).

My state school educated DC will be likely to have a “better” outcome than my privately educated DC if you’re talking about academic results….but academic results is not why one of my DC’s is being educated privately. It’s about his happiness and safeguarding his mental health.

TwigTheWonderKid

Thats quote condescending post.

Rich people live in rich areas so the state school would reflect that. it would make no difference to sink estates schools.

When parents are suffering mental health problems, drink, drugs, disability etc the kids can’t perform well at schools.

It doesn’t matter if rich kids go the the local comp - it has no impact on their lives.

If anything g it parenting that affects the child’s outcome, so many children can not or will not behave in school because their parents don’t value education.

This is not a discussion about wealth and general taxation so it's annoying people are bringing it up.

Tax is something we pay to live in a civil society, with police, roads hospitals and other public services. It's not about getting what you put in back.

I'm sure the wealthy benefit from living in a society where people are educated and have food in their bellies...and life is more equitable than other places...

There are countries where this is not the case and wealthy people are kidnapped and held for ransom.

For the love of god, stop referring to "sink estates". It's really offensive. And shows how little you know about how some of us live.

Same in Oxfordshire. Even with the new housing estates going up in towns like Didcot & Abingdon. And we have plenty of private schools in the area too

I agree, though drug consumption in adults is not confined to lower income families.

If you could randomly test all school run parents each morning, I could guess who would fail drink or drugs tests. Some would be in SUVs.

@Dibblydoodahdah

Because a) not all state schools are failing b) that 7% disproprtionately includes parents with money, clout & focus. So yes, they can make a big difference. Just imagine if all the energy that's gone into campaigning on this and gone into the state school PFAs! c) we have a natural experiment - Edinburgh & Bristol have disproportionately high % in private schools and weaker state schools.

Why would I want to do that?
Its a Dick move

With VAT maybe this,will start to change the set up of private schools. There,are chains in the independent SEN sector. Maybe this will become more the norm over future years .

If you pay VAT can you then make profits? Lots of private schools hire out there facilities outside of term times. More of them will need to do this now

yes, it will but it will also drive the prices around good state schools up the roof. And again only rich kids will go to best state schools

Yes, I'm aware of that. Which makes my point even more so. Why when the rest of us pay VAT on a huge percentage of our necessary purchases should private education which is a luxury choice be exempt? And my point that it is a luxury and that you pay VAT on nearly every other luxury purchase still stands.

Private school pupils will get offered places where they are free. Which will not be the over subscribed outstanding comp. Unless you're applying for year 7. Might make for some interesting, & v healthy, friendships 😊

Give over - sending your children to private school is a choice when state education is available to all. I accept a small number will be funded by local authorities due to specialist provision but I believe this is exampted.
I sent one of mine privately year 4 - 11 as state school was not set up to help her dyslexia and then she came back to the state sector. My others were always state. They all did similarly academically.
My daughter was much happier returning to state in 6th form as she made a good group of friends which she lacked in the private school.
If I needed to pay extra fees (which I support) I would have spent less elsewhere or moved her if I could not. Private schools could also help themselves by not expecting parents to spend a fortune on uniforms/school trips (and their friends are going to a massively expensive trip you usually try to send yours but if needed I would have said no).
there has to be a shift away from the wealthy getting all the perks and benefits of the tax system for a fairer society, it may feel tough for those affected by particular policies.

I think you will find that a lot of those private school parents are working long hours and don’t have the time to spend on the PTA or lobbying school. I certainly don’t. Like many private school parents I chose the private sector at primary level because of the wrap around care and extra curriculars on site which facilitated the long hours that my career entails.

And, as for “failing”, I went to an “outstanding” school and it still failed me. This is what people cannot understand. That even the so called best state schools fail some of their pupils and that’s why many end up in the private sector.

'Failed' in what way exactly? This term is used a lot with little explanation as to what actually happened. Sometimes children don't get good results simply because they aren't that bright or they didn't apply themselves. I went to one of the UKs best grammar schools- I didn't set the world alight in my GCSE's but it was because I arsed about!! Not the schools fault.

Well I ended up with a suicide attempt due to bullying that caused depression and anxiety. My mum spent many hours complaining and trying to resolve the situation but the school didn’t deal with it properly. So, yes, I was failed.

Why do you think it would have been any different in a private school?? Do you think it doesn't happen there? Schools aren't responsible for the parenting of children who are just little shits.