I do wonder sometimes:
They will have the power to strip schools of their charitable status – collectively worth £100 million a year – if they fail to pass the new test of "public benefit".
Lessee. There\’s, ooh, some 200,000- 250,000 (7% of the 3.3 million children in the correct age groups, ie, 11 years times 300,000 kids a year or so) in private schools. State education costs what, £ 5 k a year? So said private schools educate those children at no cost to the State, saving the public coffers £1.25 billion a year. What\’s that these days? Half a penny off income tax? A couple of times the income from the aggregates levy?
This is not, prima facie, a public benefit?
Difficult to reach any other conclusion that that there\’s something else behind this.
Couldn\’t be that as well as educating such children at no cost to the State they also educate them better could it? Showing up the educrats and all that….for that would be the ultimate sin, wouldn\’t it? I mean if everyone started to think that things could be done better without the caring ministrations of the State then where would we all be? Anarchy! Infamy! Cats with Dogs and Rains of Blood, no doubt.
State schools cost nearly £8,000 year, if you can be bothered to find the relevant numbers here.
“So said private schools educate those children at no cost to the State, saving the public coffers £1.25 billion a year.”
Further, each child educated at an independent school releases a place at a state school which that child’s parents have already paid for.
Incidentally, if a school loses its charitable status, it doesn’t simply have to pay tax on profits – it’s broken up and its assets are sold off.
And, warming to my theme, Nulab’s idea of comparing average spend per State pupil with average private school fees is complete crap.
The correct comparison is between State schools and the cheapest private schools, which by definition must be better than State schools or else parents wouldn’t send their kids there.
And as the cheapest private day schools charge less than £8,000, I think Nulab have proven once-and-for-all that State education is, by and large, a waste of money and a load of shit.
I don’t understand the figures here. There are 620,000 children in private schools, not 300,000 (although I’m not quite sure what you mean by ‘correct age group’). So the money saving is larger than you estimate, although of course not all savings are proportional to pupil numbers.
Mark’s comment about State education costing nearly £8,000 per pupil doesn’t fit with table 8.5, which puts it at £5,290.
Tim aads: Number of pupils: I dodn’t look it up. That’s why I gave the calculation. It was too early i hte day to go looking things up. Vaugely I recall that there are about 300,000 live births a year. Take 7%, 5-16 as our age group…..
“Incidentally, if a school loses its charitable status, it doesn’t simply have to pay tax on profits – it’s broken up and its assets are sold off”
I think you are likely to find, given that:
a) these establishments generally do a good job in absolute terms and mind blowingly superior job in relative terms, relative to the state sector that is
b) alumni generally have an attachment to their alma mater (give or take the latin plurals required here)
c) aforesaid alumni are, due to item a) above, running the country – at least they are if we are to believe the way Polly bangs on about so incessantly
that you’ll have a pretty big riot when the wrecker’s balls start crashing through Chamber Court or School Yard…
The private schools need to be become truly independent NOW and find a way to get out of this charitable status thing (if indeed it’s as hard to do that as previous commenters state, which frankly I doubt).
Because the state will never give up, and won’t stop tightening the screw until they’re destroyed anyway.
Go private, NOW, you fools.