As a state teacher, Labour’s private school tax plans fill me with fear

As a teacher in a state school, this plan fills me with dread and frustration (Picture: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)

On the surface, Keir Starmer’s plan for private schools is remarkable.

If Labour wins the General Election on July 4, they want to apply 20% VAT to private school fees and make all independent schools fully liable for business rates.

According to Labour, this would raise over a billion pounds, which will reportedly be funneled into state schools.

At first glance, it sounds good, right? Why should private schools get a tax break when they are centres of utmost privilege in our society? If we can tax the rich through school fees to put more money in the public purse for vital funding for the NHS and state education, then why shouldn’t we?

But as a teacher in a state school, this plan fills me with dread and frustration – and genuine fear for what this will mean for my students and those living in the most impoverished areas up and down the country.

A damning survey found that almost 60% of parents would certainly or probably withdraw their child from their current school if the initiative went ahead, leading to a mass exodus of pupils from fee-paying independent schools.

But where is it that these students will go?

Of course, the most elite families will keep their children in private education. They will be able to absorb the hike in fees. And if anything, it’ll look an even better investment to them because private schools will simply become further segregated from society.

They’ll turn into rare and exclusive sites of even more opportunity unattainable for the masses. Where only the very super-rich can rub shoulders with their peers.

But for the children from wealthy homes who are just slightly tipped over the edge by the fee increase, or families who have multiple school-aged children and cannot handle the extra thousands every month, it will be a different story. These are still young people living in intense, sheltered privilege – families who could previously afford what the majority of the population could never even imagine.

Now, is it likely that these families will remove them from the seclusion of a fee-paying school and stick them in an ‘inadequate’ comprehensive that can barely afford books?

No, of course not. Every parent wants what is best for their child. So it will be the very best schools of choice for families who have been pushed out of private education.

What will likely happen is that the highest-performing schools with the best reputations (grammar schools, schools graded ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted, and schools in the most expensive areas) will become swamped with these previously-privately educated children.

To use the unfortunate image of a food chain – which feels all too apt for our class-ruled society in Britain – the rich will populate the top of the food chain, pushing the less privileged down. And the children living in abject poverty at the bottom will be all but knocked off the food chain altogether. 

Adding a hoard of private school children to the state education sector will not level the playing field because state education is not fair or equal. The wealthiest families have access to opportunities that will secure them spaces for their children in the very best schools.

Labour’s plans will likely only exacerbate our existing gap between the rich and poor in our society (Picture: REUTERS/Toby Melville)

Unlike the rich, families relying on food banks cannot afford to pay extortionate fees for 11+ tutoring to ensure grammar school entry for their children. And families grappling with the instability of insecure housing cannot simply opt to purchase property in the catchment area of their chosen school.

In fact, research last year found that an ‘Outstanding’ grade from Ofsted can boost local house prices by an average of more than £40,000. 

If the highest performing state schools become magnets for the wealthy, then this will push out the local community, depriving them of the excellent education that was on their doorstep because they simply can no longer afford to live near a great school.

It is undeniable: Labour’s plans will likely only exacerbate our existing gap between the rich and poor in our society.

Sure, Starmer’s pledge to use the money raised from a 20% VAT on private school fees to help pay for 6,500 more teachers sounds impressive. Amidst over a decade of Tory rule and under the decimating legacy of austerity, schools desperately need teachers. 

However if we unpack this statistic a little, its impact seems to wither in comparison to the impact of a mass exodus of pupils from private schools whose parents can no longer afford the higher fees.

There are over 16,000 primary schools in England and over 3,000 secondary schools. Hiring 6,500 would only scratch the surface of the problem, considering the Government has failed to meet its own teaching recruitment targets for nine out of the last 10 years.

Worse than this though, is the fact that Starmer’s pledge is short sighted and sounds great for grabbing headlines, while doing very little to actually solve the deep-rooted and complex issues in our schools.

Recruiting teachers is one thing, but retaining them is another. And in a profession that is haemorrhaging some of its best minds (almost 9% of the teaching workforce left in the year 2021-22) due to poor pay, being overworked and a lack of funding in the sector means that our next government’s focus should be on keeping experienced educators in the classroom rather than hiring more graduates to fill a gap.

The problem, as usual, is that their plans don’t go far enough. If anything, this latest initiative makes private school a more attractive proposition for the elite, but ensures that grammar schools are the exact opposite of social mobility machines.

What we need is a radical solution. We need the eradication of private education across the board because all it offers is the chance for the wealthy to buy their children the power and prestige that is predicated on those beneath them being deprived.

We need the rich to be taxed in accordance with their wealth – on their lucrative wages and hefty estates – so that this money can be funnelled into making state education equitable and transformational for all.

Eradicating private education, rather than making it more exclusive, is the only solution. That’s what the Labour Party voted to do in 2019.

Truly levelling the educational playing field would mean students like mine would have access to better teachers, newer resources and more valuable opportunities – and it would also ensure that the exceptional standard of education that people pay for becomes available to all, regardless of background.

And then we need state education to be funded properly and fully. We need teachers to be paid a fair wage that matches the importance of the job and their level of expertise. To make teaching a job that attracts the best minds so that they can inspire and coach the next generation.

We need school buildings and resources and extra-curricular opportunities to be pumped with cash so that the experience of a state school child (even and especially in the poorest of areas) matches that offered at the best private schools. 

If we want our nation to thrive, to break down class barriers rather than uphold them, and to ensure that social mobility is actualised for every child in poverty, then we need to truly level the playing field.

We need to make sure that a school in the home counties, inner-city Liverpool, central London or one in Cornwall offer the same quality of education and future prospects for their students, no matter their background. But the way to do this is not to tax private schools. 

The way to do this is to do what teaching unions are already calling for: to properly fund education.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk. 

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