I am not sure if this policy has been thought through by Labour properly as I would see this being caught up under a lot of legal challenges. It is not straight-forward to strip the charitable status of private schools overnight, especially when the schools have a lot of bursary students, or if that's not possible, to to start charging VAT on charities. The legal challenge in case of the latter will be that if VAT can be charged on certain charities, then why not all charities, and that will mean that VAT will need to be charged on everything from social housing to healthcare. It will be an absolute mess which something Labour will not want.
Also, the counter-effect of this policy, if Labour somehow manage to get this across will be that grammar schools and top-performing state schools, will be even more sought after by the wealthy, leaving even fewer seats for the lower income families. In most grammar schools, the percentage of children with free school meals is <10%, and that will turn into near zero if this policy. It will also drive up the house prices closest to the non-selective grammars, further increasing the divide between the higher and the lower income families. Labour will certainly not want both of these to happen.
So in summary, don't expect this to happen overnight when Labour comes in. They will probably soon realise that that there are better ways of funding the state schools than going after private schools.
Also, the counter-effect of this policy, if Labour somehow manage to get this across will be that grammar schools and top-performing state schools, will be even more sought after by the wealthy, leaving even fewer seats for the lower income families. In most grammar schools, the percentage of children with free school meals is <10%, and that will turn into near zero if this policy. It will also drive up the house prices closest to the non-selective grammars, further increasing the divide between the higher and the lower income families. Labour will certainly not want both of these to happen.
So in summary, don't expect this to happen overnight when Labour comes in. They will probably soon realise that that there are better ways of funding the state schools than going after private schools.
Statistics: Posted by 11Plus2023 — Mon Feb 19, 2024 3:14 pm