Labour tax on private schools: A horn in the soup
Education Minister Bridget Phillipson promises to invest the additional revenue in improving state schools and creating 6,500 new teaching positions. "We believe it is right to prioritise investment in state schools, where most people go to school," Phillipson said in the House of Commons.
In the United Kingdom, there were 1,411 private schools with around 557,000 students in the 2023/24 school year, which according to its own figures represents 86 percent of the non-state sector. In total, the United Kingdom had 32,149 schools with around 10.63 million schoolchildren. The school system is federal: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland each have their own system.
In 2023/24, private schools received an average of £15,200 (€18,300) per child, while state schools received an average of around £8,000 (€9,600) per child. But world-famous boarding schools like Eton, with horrendous fees and an elitist reputation, distort the statistics. 681 of the 1,411 institutions registered by the ISC are religious. Of the private students in 2024, 41 percent belonged to ethnic minorities, and 20 percent had "special educational needs". State schools used to be managed exclusively by the state, but during the Conservative government from 2010 to 2024, the state sector was also opened up to private operators. DJ
At first glance, this looks like classic social democratic education policy. After all, graduates of often elite private schools in England have five times the chance of later reaching a leadership position. Numerous studies show that the approximately 620,000 private school students are privileged compared to those at state schools.
However, a closer look reveals a more differentiated picture. In addition to elite schools such as the famous Eton College with its almost 60,000 euros in school fees per year, less elite institutions are also affected by the new VAT, including language schools, Montessori and Waldorf schools, humanistic grammar schools and smaller religious schools. And also schools that specialize in children with learning disorders such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia and ADHD.
The Labour Party is thus leaning towards an inclusive school system, as laid down by UNESCO in the Salamanca Declaration on Special Needs Education in 1994. But Labour also has concerns about whether the government has thought its tax plans through. House of Commons MP Rachel Maskell, for example, stressed that many state schools currently receive far too few resources to support all children with special needs if pupils whose parents cannot afford higher fees now move to state schools.
Katherine Torrence and her husband can only confirm this. Their eight-year-old son, whose name should not be mentioned in the taz, is dyslexic. The parents themselves commissioned and paid for the assessment. Many attempts to get special language support for their son at his state school in London-Islington had previously failed.
Only with the report did Torrence gain access to a learning program for her son - but almost all of the necessary support was left to her. After a total of three years of back and forth, her son was supposed to be transferred to another state school, which, according to Torrence, could only partially meet her son's needs. "Our son was extremely unhappy and we were worried that this would not change at the new school," says Torrence.
For this reason, two years ago she enrolled him in a private school that specializes in her son's learning difficulties. They have to pay the equivalent of 50,000 euros per year for this. This year, with the newly introduced VAT, which most private schools add to the school fees, it will be 60,000 euros.
Katherine Torrence's only hope is a government support program called the Education Health Care Plan (EHC) for children with learning difficulties. This would allow the state to recognize her son's needs and cover all the costs of a private school.
The problem is that the vast majority of EHC applications are initially rejected, even though half of the 103,000 students with learning difficulties in English private schools can officially prove their need for additional support. The authorities spend huge sums of money to reject EHC applications - according to a report by the Guardian , over 120 million euros a year. Ultimately, however, the courts award the children state aid in 98.8 percent of cases. Despite this, only 7,000 children benefit from EHC support, a fraction of those affected.
Torrence and her husband's application was also rejected, leaving the family with no choice but to take legal action. Despite the financial burden, Torrence believes she made the right decision for her son. "Today he comes home and sings and tells us about his day, he's really making progress." He has even discovered that he has an ability to do math.
Andrew Day is the director of a private school for children with learning disabilities in Oxford. The Unicorn School only takes in 120 students - most of whom are covered by the state through the EHC program. But 30 children have no prospect of receiving any support, says headteacher Day: "These children clearly need additional support." But their problems are not serious enough for the state to cover their costs.
He hopes that the VAT rule will be relaxed, at least for schools like his. "We don't have any wealthy parents here," says Day. He cannot imagine that the parents of the 30 children would be able to bear the cost increase for long, even if he tries everything to somehow reduce the costs or get them refunded. Because of these effects, lawyer Paul Conrathe is suing against the government decree on behalf of some of those affected.
"With the VAT change, the government is violating Article 2.1 and Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights," Conrathe told taz. This refers to the right to education without discrimination. The British government itself admits that the state system is not functioning properly, and this has been confirmed by numerous independent reports. The Labour government's decision means that more children in need of support are being forced into a broken system.
The umbrella organization of private schools (Independent School Council) estimates that around 10 percent of all private school students will now switch to state schools as a result of the introduction of VAT. In some places, such as Surrey, there are not enough places in state schools for this, the association warns.
The criticism of the school reform has also brought the quality of the state school system into the centre of the debate. In mid-January, a parliamentary committee chaired by MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown identified serious shortcomings in the inclusion of children with special needs. "We have been letting countless children down for years," said Clifton-Brown. He called on the government to take urgent action. Otherwise, schools risk a "lost generation".
The committee found, among other things, that the programs and support for children with special needs formed a chaotic system: full of bureaucracy, severely underfunded and at the same time wasteful. The Ministry of Education responded that there was also progress, thanks in part to the approved investments amounting to the equivalent of almost 2.7 billion euros per year, almost half of which for children with special needs.
More investment in state schools is always welcome, says Joseph Mintz of the UCL Institute of Education. But the education expert also stresses the importance of the initiatives of parents and organizations that have founded private schools to better meet the special needs of certain children with learning disabilities.
Which type of school is better is ultimately an ideological question, says Mintz. Labour believes in an inclusive school system. But Mintz wonders whether private schools, where most children have an EHC and the state covers the costs, could not have been called state schools long ago.
taz
