I promise I will stop banging on about art but for those of you that don’t know Bob and Roberta Smith this article is interesting. In short if you stifle the arts and creative expression that is the first step to stifling a democracy.
Regarding inequality there is a bit of a sentiment amongst some that “it has always been thus…” but the fact is it is getting worse. As previously mentioned key agents agitating for this in the world of education were Michael Gove and Dominic Cummings. Let’s hope Gove is not the next PM! I remember seeing a clip of Kenneth Clarke saying if he was PM we would be involved in about three wars in the space of a week. Well he certainly waged a war on education forcing perfectly good schools to become academies. See what @Dizzy posted above for a concrete example of this.
Gobbled up the Bob and Roberta interview.
Doesn’t it make for a bloody treat to see flesh and blood talking like flesh and blood not firkin’ stuffed forkin’ shirts?
In 2019 if you look at both the Health Care system and Education in Britain as a potential user you would EASILY opt for private Health care and Private education IF YOU CAN AFFORD THEM and your political beliefs allowed it.
Why has Britain arrived here?
In my opinion if those with money and most of the power can avoid using the state system they will never use that power to force improvements in the State institutions.
It’s just that simple.
If you mean France, the answer is easy: ‘private’ schools are staffed by teachers paid by the state and the essential difference is that they have a religious affiliation.
They aren’t a business.
They cost about 5% of what a bog standard British private day school costs per year and most of that is canteen because unlike normal schools they aren’t subsidised by the town hall, this is why there is no outcry, there is no us and them, they aren’t considered élite establishments.
State lycées provide boarding facilities, it isn’t a status symbol.
There are two types of private school here - contracted and non-contracted, the second category often charge high fees comparable to UK private schools, they have their own curriculum and are not under state control. The point I’m making is that it seems to work in France so why shouldn’t it work in the UK?
The hors-contrat ones are not generally considered good schools, they are just businesses and are statistically insignificant, like the people who home school - that’s why I didn’t even mention them.
And even the religious affiliation is much less evident than in any UK school I’ve ever known - laïcité still applies.
Labour’s plan, not to abolish, but to integrate private schools with the state system will (hopefully) lead to something much more like the French system.
I know that some private school would then attempt to change their own status and become religious establishments as religion does play a large role in a majority of the private boarding schools to bypass any legislation. Then you get church vs. state and another toxic mess. There should be an approach of contraction and convergence where state school scan look to private establishments and work with them to improve standards (granted central funding is a MAJOR issue and not a problem for private schools).
This is complete nonsense I am afraid, as you are aware there is no separation of church and state in the UK so religion is present in schools both in assembly, in chapel and as RE lessons. There are explicitly religious foundations eg Worth, Ampleforth and Douai but those are Catholic foundations with monks.
Religious affiliation has absolutely nothing to do with charitable status.
I imagine that parents of privately educated children would be only too pleased not to have to pay school fees, if the standard of education in the state sector was of the same as in the private sector. However, to seize the land and school buildings would surely be illegal as they are privately owned (as read in the Independent). We put our children through private schooling as the state sector was found wanting, whilst still contributing to the local schools through council tax. It cost us in excess of £40,000 per year, which we would have preferred to spend elsewhere. We were not super rich but hardworking parents. We just wanted a better education for our children and it was certainly not an income fuelled privilege, as you put it. It set our children up for the future and certainly our daughter has benefited well, with a very good career. Unfortunately, our son has PTSD from his time in the Army but that is another story. By all means take away the charitable status of private schools but even doing that would not stop parents sending their children to them. How would Corbyn fund the influx of private school children integrating into the state system? Surely he would have to raise taxes substantially to do so (also read in the Independent). You could not expect the parents of previously privately educated children to continue to pay school fees to be in the state sector.
Our children also went to private schools, our son from age 6 and our daughter from 3. I sympathise with your struggle as we did too, to give our children the best we could afford, sometimes working more than one job. The schools too also offered their facilities for use by local schools and groups, including a top of the range gym and swimming pool, where the council had closed the local pool in a cost saving exercise. The schools also offered bursaries and scholarships that state school children could apply for. It will be interesting to see how Corbyn will pay for this whim of his.
