Parents of private school pupils switching to state education over 19 per cent fee increase
Governors announce the highest rise in fees in decades for the next academic year as they pass on increases in energy, food and wage costs
Prices change, behaviour changes.
If only we could have some science that would explore the implications of this extraordinary finding. Like, tax the rich more, will they stay around to be taxed? Tax high earners more will they work as hard to earn as much? Raise the minimum wage and will employers employ as much labour?
There are just so many interesting corollaries, aren’t there?
I wonder if parents are starting to wonder why they are paying so much for their children’s education when so many of them turn out to be moronic followers of fads such as JSO or ER. Not many of the climate justice twats seem to come from the comps
Dio – That’s because Climatewang is a luxury belief. Not many Deanos have wealthy parents who can bankroll their activism.
A mate of mine is going through exactly that. His daughter’s expensive private eduation has indoctrinated her into al out Wokeism. Now she has gone to Oxford and so is a lost cause.
And Labour want to add 20% VAT.
There are around 650,000 pupils in private education.
Average cost to the state of school funding will be £7,460 per pupil in 23-24.
Average cost per pupil in fees in a private school is around £15,000. So VAT would bring in £3,000 per pupil.
£3,000 VAT currently forgone to save £7,460 cost. labour want that ended.
Labournomics.
@ Andrew C
But think how much it will save once there is no decent education available to show up the failings of state schools and they can abolish Ofsted and reduce teacher training to an indoctrination course.
Like Diogenes, I can’t see the point in paying for private education nowadays because the idea of encouraging children to acquire knowledge and to test ideas is a thing of the past.
Most of the handful of excellent teachers from my schooldays wouldn’t be tolerated today and I shouldn’t wonder if that holds more generally irrespective of whether or not the schools were fee-paying.
19% is well above general inflation. What’s the excuse?
TMB,
“Like Diogenes, I can’t see the point in paying for private education nowadays because the idea of encouraging children to acquire knowledge and to test ideas is a thing of the past.”
That very much depends on the subject. My daughter is studying biomed at university and it’s still this. There’s no socialism, no woke, no-one going on about institutional racism or climate justice in biomed.
I wouldn’t pay for private education because a) it makes almost no difference, literally 1 grade at A level (so BBC instead of BCC) on average b) private schools teach to the national curriculum, so the same bollocks they get at state school c) the internet. If you have a gifted child who is nuts about a subject, they have near unlimited resources available to them.
Andrew M,
In short, several things going on in terms of rising costs:
– sharp increase in teachers’ pay (which is usually >70% of total costs for a school)
– rising utility and food costs (which weren’t offset by Govt help and which is most of the remaining 30%)
– mutterings about an eye-watering increase in pension contribs
– removal of business rate relief
– interest rates on CBILs
Meanwhile on the top line:
– quite a lot of schools elected not to raise fees at all in the first year of the pandemic so have eaten reserves during that period
– it was hard to call the right increase this time last year so some schools will be looking at an unforecasted loss for this year too to compound the above.
Overall, there’s quite a lot of schools that are quite precariously financed now and there’s a bunch of stuff (see costs above) beginning to bite. More importantly, schools will be looking to ensure that any such precarious financial position is sorted before Labour get in (which they will) and whack VAT on fees (which they very well might).
A lot of private schools have branch operations in Furrin. I can see some of them restructuring themselves to be based in Furrin and have a branch in the UK – or even just wind up the UK branch. Why go to Rugby School and put up with the English Midlands when you can go to Rugby School in Tokyo.
People will just have to copy Toni Blair: wangle the children into an unusually good state school for which they qualify by right of Privilege, then hire tutors from Westminster or some other top private school to pop round in the evening and give them an education.
(Whether Blair bothered with this fandango for his youngest I rather doubt – no need for a facade once he was out of office. Anyone know?)
@ dearieme
That trick predates Tony Blair by decades – Holland Park Comprehensive had a reputation as the school for the children of Labour ministers and Shadow Ministers in the 60s and 70s