Quote:
Originally Posted by nffc
That will be the case for some schools and some parents but not all of them.
Plenty of kids in private schools are not from rich backgrounds but either on scholarships or bursaries or the parents just go without so that the kids can go to the schools.
It won't be the filthy rich kids who lose out, but those from less affluent backgrounds for whom 20% extra on fees would be too much and which the schools might not be able to help with, or might not be able to afford.
If you have parents who are paying 20k a year for the school place and there's about 100 kids in the year then each year (times 7 for a secondary school) makes the school £2 million a year, meaning overall fees coming in for this would be 14 million a year. Then you see that 20% VAT on top of those doesn't go to the school it goes to the Government so the school's income is the same. If let's say 10 kids in each year decide they can't afford it and have to drop out into a state school that's then 90 kids in 7 years so 12.6m income, which the school then loses 1.4m from its budget. Enough kids leaving means the school will have to make budget cuts or put the fees up more.
If the school in the above example with 700 pupils closes that's 700 pupils which need a place somewhere else. And 14m worth of VAT they don't get at all, unless they can get into another school.
This won't cause issues with the rich oversubscribed schools like Eton and Harrow but the smaller ones will certainly feel the impact. How much depends on how many people decide they can't afford the higher costs and how much support they get.
But it seems a bit idealistic to suggest they might be able to use the VAT to get extra teachers because where are these teachers going to come from?
|
Wait there while I get the world’s smallest violin out for parents trying to buy their kids privilege but can’t because of minor things like paying tax.
Maybe they could do without avocados etc.
The trend is for fees to far outstrip inflation.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-a7023056.html
There’s no public good here they can pony up like everyone else on everything else. “The market” can step in with cheaper provision if it’s commercially viable.