Have you had a dive into the new year sales over the last few days? If so, were you happy that you had to pay 20% VAT on that new washing machine or those trainers? Were you chuffed to be paying that tax on that sausage roll you nibbled on between shops or the drink you had in the pub on your way home?
Of course you weren’t. But you appreciate we need to raise cash to pay for kidney machines, prison warders and benefits, and few like to see it coming from their wage packet. Therefore the majority of us go along with this tax on goods and services.
So why is anyone listening to the whines from affluent parents who choose to buy their little darlings a better education than the state provides, now that Labour has put VAT on private school fees?
Are private education profiteers, unlike private healthcare profiteers, not providing a service? I’d say selling golden tickets to life’s lottery by turbocharging the chances of children entering the top universities and the best-paid professional jobs is a vital service for the rich. A major element in passing down entrenched privilege through generations.
In this country, being privately educated brings you so much more than a smattering of Latin. It sets you up for life. According to educational charity the Sutton Trust, 65% of senior judges, 59% of top civil servants, 54% of FTSE-100 CEOs, 52% of diplomats, and even 44% of national newspaper columnists are privately educated.
That’s despite 93% of UK pupils being schooled in the state system. Many private parents argue their taxes pay for state teachers. Yes, but so do childless adults, and all taxpayers pay to train most of the teachers who end up in the private system.
Plus the 1,300 schools with a charitable status don’t pay corporation tax, capital gains tax or stamp duty. Labour believes the VAT move will eventually allow them to transfer £1.7billion to state schools. It’s never been more badly needed.
This week, new research showed that more than 1.5 million students in England are taught in dilapidated classrooms. Outrageously, spending per state pupil is now less, in real terms, than when Labour was last in power in 2010.
But when successive Tory Cabinets are predominantly privately educated (two-thirds of Rishi Sunak’s were) and that’s where they send their offspring, why should they care? Look at old Etonian Boris Johnson.
Following Covid, he appointed an education recovery tsar, only to look aghast at the £15billion state school catch-up plan he recommended, and slash it by 90% to £1.4billion. Which translated to £50 per UK pupil compared to the £1,600 per pupil spent in the US on Covid catch-up and £2,500 per pupil in the Netherlands.
It turned the gap in exam results between our state and private schools (which had the means to negotiate Covid) into a chasm.
The imposition of 20% VAT on private school fees (of which an average 14% will be passed on to parents) is long overdue.
Were I someone who profited from, and still uses, private schools, I’d be secretly pleased because many Labour supporters believe our divided education system will only reach the highest international standards when those schools are abolished.
So maybe they should view it like the end product of their kid’s schooling: A top result. Then shut up and cough up.