Private Schooling
Ok, so I was just watching the Daily Politics Show and I found that, altogether, the Private schools of England are given tax breaks of over 100 million pounds! This is because they are 'charity' schools! This law is currently under revision - which I think is an excellent idea! Think of what that 100 million pounds could do for British comprehensives!
What are your views?
If the private shools did not receive the Tax breaks they would have to increase the schooling fees, this would mean that some people who can just about afford to send their kids to private schools would not be able to do so; they would then have to go to a state school (comprehensive or grammar if they pass the desired standards), this in turn would put more pressure and costs on the monies the state run schools have to run their schools, because it is only a small portion that the private schools can claim back as tax breaks, I think the overall burden on the state schools would outweigh the 100m savings from the tax-breaks and knowing the government they would not allocate the 100m to the education department.
Disclaimer notice: I did not go to a private school and have no interest in private schools so this is a completely un-biased view.
I wouldn't mind them getting tax breaks if they truly were charity schools, only giving places to the best and brightest of Britain - but they give them to privelidged bastards, who get to waste an outstounding education just because they're rich.
I would have loved to be schooled privately, and my parents really wanted to send me, but we couldn't afford it and another girl beat me to a scholarship. I worked hard at comprehensive, but private schooled kids don't recognise what a wonderful oppurtunity they have. INstead of going to a private school with one teacher per 8 children, I went to a comprehensive, and I was lucky to have one teacher per 38 children
Those 'privileged bastards', as you so eloquently put it, pay for their own education, they may waste their education but it is paid for by their parents/guardians; if these kids went to state schools with their attitude of not having to try because they are rich an will not need to work, then they would put a further strain on the education departments already limited spending budget. Yes these schools are cheating a little by claiming tax-breaks as charities whilst only offering limited assisted places to qualify as a charity, but they do qualify and they do relieve some of the strain on the state schools, without these schools I think the education system would be worse than it currently is; instead of more schools or more classes in the state schools they would just cram more into the current classes this having a detrimental effect on them.
In the comprehensive school I went to we had around 112 pupils per year, this meant the you were graded and were in groups learning with people of a similar ability to yourself, this in itself is not a bad thing as you will be learning pretty much at the pace relevant to yourself, I don’t think being taught at a comprehensive school gives you that much of a dis-advantage if you want to learn you can and will learn, if we had the Rich kids in the schools not trying this would also be detrimental to the others kids development.
I must admit an interest, ( bias ), here before I go on !
As a Socialist I would make sure that not one penny of public cash is spent on grant-aided and "charitable" private schools !
I am not saying that the rich should not be able to have their own level of education - as that would be unfair to them; all that I am saying is that the taxes that are supposed to go towards a state education should do just that and should not get siphoned off to subsidise the well-off.
As Phoe said....Many millions of pounds of public money is allowed to go to shore-up private education so that a tiny few especially gifted but poor people should get the benefit of a private education, ( whatever benefit that is ? ). If this money was to be sensibly spent in the public sector maybe there would be a far better/improved comprehensive system to do this job and we would not get stuck-up elitists churned out of the private schools as a result !
If you want to debate the problems in the difference between (US) public schools v. private schools, then this whole conversation will take on a new tone. I think that it's unfair that people with enough money to go to private school get a better education. The problem in all of this is that the "private" schools are superior to the public schools. I believe that there should be no private schools. Sure, schools where there is an emphasis on a particular religious denomination, but private schools should be done away with...at least the difference in the quaity of education recieved between the two should be done away with...
Capt Fantastic said....
Sure, schools where there is an emphasis on a particular religious denomination
I think, in America, the state and the churches, ( all of them ), are kept separate !
I agree whole-heartedly with this policy as religious teaching should be kept firmly to the churches, synagogues and temples and should NOT be allowed where the three R's are being taught ! ( I will qualify this statement by saying that YES...there should be an awareness of all of the world's religions taught in school but never one to the detriment of the others.
We in Britain suffer this malady already but I would not like to see it happening in America !
It happens here, we have seperate boards, for catholic, public, and private schools 😊
All my schools before have been catholic, except the first ever for private catholic 😕 It's all a big mess 😛
Now I go to a catholic high school where religion is one of our mandatory credits all four years, but we dont focus on only one religions, we go through others, like world religions and so on.
I went to a private school and there was a large percentage of the students at my school on scholarships and in my year there were several on bursaries. The government has already stopped [private school bursaries meaning that the lower years at my school are full of the rich and 1 or 2 poor but very intelligent kids. If the government takes away those scholarships then private schools will become even more elite and some of the most intelligent kids could be deprived of a better education.
It would all work if the government was capable of bringing all state schools up to the same standards as private ones. But with staff shortages, and a lot of teachers preferring to work in the private sector where possible I dont think now is a suitable time to remove that money from the private sector.
Naybean......
I am not commenting on the quality of the education that is gleaned from private ( "public" in Britain ), or mono-denominational schools here as often the quality of this education is very high.....
NO... I am against the public schools - firstly - using state money to survive and - secondly - turning out stuck-up and superiority-conscious people who are encouraged to look down their noses at the ordinary people. Elitism is rotten in the public-school system and the "old-school-tie" and the "old boy's" network has ruined the management structures in the industries of Britain. ( It's not WHAT you know, It's WHO you know ).
A good education is fine but if it goes along with a twisted sense of worth or a bias towards certain religions in mostly secular Britain then this is wrong, wrong, wrong "!
I think that parents should be able to choose what kind of schooling their kids get. So the more parents that can afford to choose the better. I would have nothing against the tax cuts.
If I didn't make it into a selective school I was headed for a private school. But halfway through high school I ended up going to a general public school anyway. I felt like telling you that.
Paps: I totally agree with you that there are a number of people who go to public/private school and are 'stuck-up and superiority-conscious people who are encouraged to look down their noses at the ordinary people' but from p[ersonal experience that has nothing to do with their schooling but the way they were raised by their parents. A lot of these people tend to go to the very top public schools like eton. But theres a much larger number of private schools that are nothing like that.