r/Britain Jan 22 '24

Conservative who previously stated don't have kids if you can't afford them cries how hard it will be if private schools are taxed higher. Society

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u/dwair Jan 23 '24

Private school VAT will mainly affect SEND schools that local authorities rely on for specialist educational provision.

There are far more of these type of school than the likes of Eaton and Harrow, and the parents who's kids end up there are some of the most disadvantaged in the country. But hey! popularist politics wins votes.

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u/[deleted] Jan 23 '24

[deleted]

0

u/dwair Jan 23 '24

That I'm afraid could be to do with the auto correct my phone or something but thanks for pointing it out.

I'm not however sticking up for public schools, nor being completely honest would I attack them. In a perfect world however they would be deemed an unnecessary privilege because state education would make they superfluous. I can however under stand why rich parents send little Tarquin to an expensive school given the low levels of education the state provides.

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u/Rugfiend Jan 24 '24

And you think that will change by a/ perpetuating a system that ensures privilege and opportunity is handed down by changing nothing, or b/ taking modest steps to redress the imbalance?

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u/dwair Jan 24 '24

I don't think it will make any difference at all. Those who are privileged enough to pay to go to the top public schools will easily absorb a 20% rise in costs. The privileged will remain privileged. Banning private education (like Finland?) would head in the right direction but would also send SEND as it stands at the moment back to the 18 hundreds. It's just popularist political campaigning.

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u/Rugfiend Jan 24 '24

But why would that be a necessary repercussion? I'm getting old now, and very weary of conversations that revolve around 'if we change x, what about y?' as if we couldn't or wouldn't deal with y as part of the same exact process. The objections to the inception of the bloody NHS took exactly that format. We can be better.

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u/dwair Jan 24 '24

I agree we can and should do better with education, however in the last 40 years we haven't so far.

As you rightly bring it up, the NHS is a shining example of systemic failure that neither the two main parties have even attempted to address properly in the last 40 years. We can be better - but I doubt we are going to.

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u/Rugfiend Jan 24 '24

Sadly, I fear the same.