Private school teachers - would you stay on and work for Corbyn?

[noblegiraffe]

So Labour has decided that it will strip private schools of their assets (I assume this means ‘we own Eton now’) and integrate them into the state sector.

As a private school teacher what do you and your colleagues reckon? Would you be happy to become a state school teacher?

Or would you say ‘fuck this’ and go and do something else?

It’s the usual Labour conference stuff - heavily ideological with no allowances made for facts or reality. Just because you would like to do something doesn’t mean it’s legally or financially viable.

By that logic, then private nurseries should also be tax exempt because they are saving on the EYFS hours, private medical companies should also have charitable status too because they save the NHS money.

They're profit making enterprises that dont fulfil the charity they profess to have through charitable status. Either they do more meaningfully to be charitable or they should lose their financial exemptions in my opinion.

I have no issue with private schools, but I don't think schools in my area should be losing half a million to a million pounds whilst schools like Eton get tax breaks.

I think the tax breaks should go.

Tax breaks going sounds like a reasonable Labour policy. Why on earth do they have to be so batshit?

And for fuck’s sake can we take education out of the hands of politicians? Every sodding election there’s some shit. Grammar schools. Abolishing KS2 SATs and Ofsted. WE NEED SOME STABILITY.

The policy is ludicrous but the tax breaks should definitely end. They are an utter nonsense.

‘Can we take education out of the hands of politicians’

That would be wonderful.

Just wanted to pipe in that in my area, many private schools aren't staying afloat, are struggling hugely or have closed in the last 10 years. Removing charitable status further advantages independents in the South... to the detriment of schools in the North.

I worked in a private school and could never work out how the school justified its charitable status. I have DCs in private school and the extra 20% would hit us hard but, actually, I agree with removing the charitable status. I think the only way schools can counter this challenge is to go public about the number of bursaries and how many children each year are supported with fully funded places. Which won’t please those parents who are currently anonymous within the schools. Currently the position is yes, we offer bursaries but shhhhh, we don’t talk about it in public.

To answer the OP’s question - no, I’d take my pension.

Adding VAT to school fees has been talked about for decades, and it has never got beyond just talking about it. It’s not possible as the majority of independent schools are charities, and it’s not really possible to remove charitable status from an educational establishment.

On economics, if school fees were taxed, schools would simply stop offering bursaries and withdraw any other benefits to the wider community. The state does not subsidise Eton students by £700. Remember, the masters pay income tax, well above this rate.

Taking independent schools into the state sector would, of course, mean that the direct cost of their education would need to be covered by the state. I don’t think many independent school buildings would be suitable for the state system as the classroom space just won’t be big enough. My classroom, which is the biggest in my school, can fit a maximum of sixteen students. No way could you squeeze in 35.

Many schools have restricted covenants meaning that the buildings have to be kept within education, so not a case of just selling them for flats.

I don’t know how my school would work as a state school either, it’s a rather old building that requires a lot of maintenance and upkeep. The building is part owned by a charitable trust and has strict requirements on things being kept as is. The rooms are too small for large class sizes.

There are a lot students who flourish at the school I am at who would get left behind, bullied, those who are suffering mental health issues due to loss of parents/siblings and couldn’t cope in mainstream. Those that have to be home schooled. It’s a 50/50 split between kids of privilege and kids whose families have done everything possible to give the kids this kind of education because state schools are failing them.

I’m not a teacher but I do think that one size fits all, state education is not the answer. Maybe some kind of hybrid scheme, where they have to take x amount of state pupils, ones deemed most in need? But I’m sure a lot of private schools do that already in form of bursaries.

Part of me also thinks that it would be better to improve state education first, then reducing the need for private schools. What is going to happen once they all switch to the state sector? Are the children they serve going to be worse off? Why is that fair?

Then of course house prices around the best schools will rocket even further and you will find that you end up with middle class secondary’s with strong ptas who will ensure the schools get the facilities they need.

I also think the Labour Party are using this as a distraction from the fact they have no proper clearly defined Brexit policy and need to take the focus off this by attacking private schools.

They are a joke party and I hope the Lib Dem’s usurp them at the next election.

A lot of the major public schools now have overseas branches in the middle east and Asia - so they could possibly pull out of the UK altogether?

Where exactly is all the money coming from for these extra state places and free NHS prescriptions?

I know. They will milk the cow dead again, be kicked out of power, and the austerity cycle will start all over again a few years down the line.

Good old Labour. All mouth and no f£cking trousers.

“Seize assets”? Just that says all you need to know about Labour at the moment.
Another prime example of why Labour is unelectable. Sometimes I wonder if they are doing everything possible to prevent themselves from winning a general election?

They won’t be able to abolish private education without breaching ECHR. That’s was looked at last time labour went nuts for class war. Even Corbyn isn’t stupid enough to try that or if he is, someone will talk him down.
Private school do not get tax breaks. They are taxed as charities if and only if they are organised and they operate as charities. If they do that taxing them as charities is no more a tax break than it’s a tax break for me to be taxed as an individual rather than a corporate

To answer the original question- having worked in both sectors, yes I think I would go and do something else.

There has however, been zero discussion of this at work. Rightly or wrongly people don’t believe it will happen.

It's astounding that with the Tory party once again split and riven with infighting, Labour seems determined to make itself unelectable.

I agree with the first 2 points. Why should they be given tax breaks? I’m sure they’d be rich enough to stay afloat.

The third point I don’t agree with. Let them keep their buildings and maintain them at their own cost. Don’t shaft them around as the upkeep would be too dear, and most of them are historical buildings that need to be maintained properly.

It will presumably have a massive on house prices too. Areas with outstanding state schools will have an even more inflated price, and the gap within areas will widen even more.

*massive impact

I am not sure how a government can steal money off private companies/charities. Or is the nasty party going full communism?

The state does not subsidise Eton students by £700. Remember, the masters pay income tax, well above this rate.
All citizens who pay tax are subsidising schools that are so called charities who are really profit making organisation.

They may or may not be ‘charities’ that’s a whole debate.

They definitely aren’t profit making though. Who do you suppose they are making a profit for

The university thing is bollocks too. All headline and no facts. So, they want unis to only take 7% private students. But the percentage of kids at private sixth form is nearer 20%. So, are you just going to deny places to that 13% extra? Or, how long do you have to be in private school to count as a private school pupil? A day? A year? Five years? What about if you're in private for 10 years and then transfer to state for sixth form, do you suddenly count as a state pupil? And how are the top universities going to react when they're told they've got to reject a load of very high quality applicants, thus weakening their results, reputation, research etc, in order to meet their limit? Nothing wrong with the desire to increase state representation at university - but a stupid, totally un-thought-through way to do it.

Oh dear oh dear ... how we do froth when nanny threatens to take our privileges away.
I would support the abolition of private schooling altogether. I would also support a lottery system for places in all schools. There you go ... no impact on house prices and everyone has an interest in funding and making state education as good as it possibly can be because we would all have skin in the game. Totally fair.

The very rich families would rent a villa for 6 months and the kids would apply as overseas students. Then once they have started at uni the family would return to the U.K. and change their status.

Likewise with independent schools. They would register their address in the Bahamas and bingo: “The lAmerican School at Eton College”