Brian Gregory asks why local MPs are so concerned about VAT on private school fees.
It is an indication of how far our local MPs, Nigel Huddleston and Harriet Baldwin, are from aligning with the real concerns of most average citizens that they both chose to focus strongly in their Christmas messages on their objections to Government plans to charge VAT on private school fees. In contrast, a recent poll by the Private Education Policy Forum thinktank found that 54% of people asked backed these proposals while only 22% opposed them. In addition, 57% thought the whole system of private education unfair, with only the same 22% disagreeing.
There is no obvious reason why money spent on private schooling should not be subject to VAT like other forms of discretionary spending. Such schooling is a choice, given that we have a free state-funded educational system available to all. Such schools exist primarily for those having wealth and privilege to attempt to secure advantage for their children through purchasing better facilities and resources and smaller classes than those experienced by the more than 90% of children in maintained schools. The Government plan to use the proceeds of VAT to boost staffing and resourcing of schools for the majority of children therefore seems to strike most people as a small but significant move towards greater fairness.
Interestingly, additional recent research has suggested that, once differences in background are taken into account, pupils in state schools in fact perform at the same level as those from private schools in some examinations, despite the resourcing imbalance. This suggests that it is probably mainly for social networking and ‘polish’, rather than a better educational outcome per se, that parents invest in private education.
Our society suffers greatly, in comparison with most European counties, from a grotesque level of inequality, which has increased significantly since the disastrous policies of the Thatcher years, which subsequent governments have largely failed to reverse. The existence of a privileged tier of education for a minority only perpetuates and reinforces this inequality. Surely, we should welcome this small step towards a fairer society, rather than supporting the wealthy and privileged in seeking to maintain their advantages, as our local MPs seem to be doing, on the spurious grounds of ‘freedom’ (as though the plan was to abolish such schools, which it is not).
Brian Gregory, Droitwich & Evesham Labour Party