Vat on Independent school fees?

[Brewster's millions]

They have little to no impact on each other so no.
They can both be discussed independently.

Ignore the policy that costs 12bn a year and just concentrate on the 2bn.

Sounds like a plan.

 

[BobKowalski]

For most careers it probably doesn't make a huge difference.

For the ones with power; politics, senior lawyers, senior civil servants, journalists - it's "curious" how much of a difference it makes.

For a career in these professions a private education is all but mandatory. To be PM an Eton education puts you at the front of the queue. Bizarre that we prioritise a privileged background over ability. Fishing in such a shallow pool is a shocking waste of talent, yet it is a situation we are conditioned to accept.

 

[west didsblue]

Ignore the policy that costs 12bn a year and just concentrate on the 2bn.

Sounds like a plan.

Nope. Just discuss it separately. If you feel so strongly about it start a thread like I said.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Ignore the policy that costs 12bn a year and just concentrate on the 2bn.

Sounds like a plan.

Scrap Trident and fund both.

Sounds like a plan.

 

[west didsblue]

For a career in these professions a private education is all but mandatory. To be PM an Eton education puts you at the front of the queue. Bizarre that we prioritise a privileged background over ability. Fishing in such a shallow pool is a shocking waste of talent, yet it is a situation we are conditioned to accept.

As proven by Boris Johnson. Thick as pigshit, lazy as fuck but knows a few big words and is adept at bullshitting. But went to Eton so make him PM. Ridiculous.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

We need a more thorough tax reform policy.
Organisations that call themselves charities but are more like low-profit entities eg care businesses, and those that technically/ legally are charities such as public schools, are ripe for a proper re-evaluation of what we expect from a charity.
VAT reform is an easy policy to communicate, as per public school fees, but could or should be part of wider and deeper tax reform.

Schools "qualify" as charities because they provide support for "the poor"
For reference, Manchester Grammar...

Fees for the year 2023/24 are £15,180 per year, or £5,060 per term.
Thanks to the generosity of our donors, since 1998 we have spent £25 million funding life-changing bursary places for more than 600 bright boys, who might otherwise have missed out on a first-class education because of their financial circumstances.

so that's 600 in 25 years, about 24 per year
The £25m for 600 boys is about £42k per boy over a typical 7 years school life.
There are currently c1,600 kids enrolled at say £15k average, that's £24M per year
£1m going to bursaries.
1/24 or about 4% going to save/avoid VAT of about 20%.

And, as a further reference, Eton awards about 14 King's Scholarships per year at the £50k/year school.
One of the well-know King's Scholars is a certain scruffy blonde haired narcissist ex-Prime Minister.
One of 19 ex-Eton PMs.

But then even those figures are bullshit, because the majority of scholarships (66%) are not given for academic ability, they're either given for sporting or musical talent, or simply for the children of teachers at the school. And we can all probably guess what sort of sporting or musical talent is rewarded. They're probably not giving it to a talented footballer or boxer, are they? Most scholarships go to middle and upper-class parents. And that's because a lot of the scholarships don't cover the full fees, so even with a scholarship, you've still got to have a few quid to pay for it. The also use accounting tricks to artificially increase the 'cost' of these scholarships, allowing them to justify giving fewer of them.

 

[metalblue]

Isn't their child becoming a plumber below the parents' apparent aspirations?

Wow.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

Personally I find it odd that discussions such as imposing VAT on private education and other issues around school funding are conducted separately from questions around tertiary education, given the potentially enormous fiscal burden created by student loans.

The student loan book could very easily hit half a trillion pounds in another twenty years and the fiscal cost created by defaults will for a period at least be extremely high. In fact when the ONS changed how student loans are accounted for in the public finances a few years ago - to more accurately reflect the fiscal impact of expected defaults - the move added 12 billion to government borrowing in a single year.

Yep, student loans have always been an accounting con. The government have basically committed to paying people's university fees, just with future generation's money, rather than up front. Which allowed them to book it all as personal debt rather than government debt.

 

[metalblue]

When you have a choice to choose state education.

It doesn’t make it a luxury good.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

As proven by Boris Johnson. Thick as pigshit, lazy as fuck but knows a few big words and is adept at bullshitting. But went to Eton so make him PM. Ridiculous.

Well yeah, go to Eton, make some connections, get handed a safe Tory seat when you fancy dabbling in politics, and then when you inevitably fuck up, use one of your many contacts to get one of those jobs with an important-sounding title and fuck all work.