Tax law changed in the UK, specifically Value Added Tax, a form of sales tax, now applies to private school fees. Given that typical fees for a day school are around £15k, the fact that they were exempt from VAT saved people a reasonable amount of money each year. So much so, that a small minority of parents will now have to relocate their children from private to state school.

I might have got into a fight with one of them on social media.

Before that change was implemented there were lots of claims that we’d see an influx of children into the state system that would not be able to cope, that in fact very little money would be made by the government making this change as a result.

It turns out that there re around 650k pupils in private schools in the UK, of which maybe 35k are estimated to be transferring to the state sector, a small proportion of the total. The change in tax will net the government a tidy sum that can be spent on free school meals for poorer kids, for more teachers and improved infrastructure in the state system.

For me, it seems like a good policy with good outcomes.

Of course my children are long past their school years and we could afford to send them to private schools even if VAT had been applied. Like most parents paying for the privilege, we were not at all price sensitive. During a time of low to no inflation, school fees doubled over six years. No one left their private schools.

The woman arguing with me on my socials doesn’t know my own kids’ educational background of course. She assumed that my children, if I had any, were state educated. She assumed my position was one of grievance, that I begrudged her something we could not afford ourselves.

Am I a hypocrite? Possibly. It doesn’t feel like the right word though.

I have never fooled myself that I wasn’t buying my girls something of value with their education, an advantage, and that as a consequence of that choice, other people’s children would be disadvantaged. It felt and still feels to me, that girls have plenty of disadvantages in life and spending money to advantage them went a small way to balancing that disadvantage. I accepted that it was unfair. Of course it was.

I have voted all of my life for a political party and system where in and ideal world both private and religious education would cease to exist. I would be happy in that world. But since we’re not there, and we could afford it, we chose private single-sex schools. I don’t regret the choice.

Having said all of that, the benefits of private education are not as great as you’d think. My girls had both good and bad teachers. they were in selective schools so the width band of educational needs was narrowed and easier to teach. This also meant that they had no idea that they were cleaver until they reached university which obviously impacted how they saw themselves, maybe still how they see themselves. The self-esteem of girls in selective same-sex schools can be difficult.

The facilities at the schools were good, but the really glamorous private school facilities tend to be sports based for boys schools, not academic girls’ schools. The breadth of subjects was broader initially, a choice of languages to learn, music and art as real subjects with dedicated time and teachers, but the academic pressures to perform pushed the children down fairly traditional academic routes.

I am genuinely sorry that this woman feels forced to move her child from her private school at 16. It must feel very disruptive. Her family must be quite angry and quite sad.

But that’s her problem. I don’t think that people struggling to get by in life should be asked to pay more tax to afford her a tax break on private schooling for her children whilst their own go to the local state school. I could afford the luxury of private education. Alas, she no longer can. Capitalism sucks.

She didn’t feel sorry for the neighbours who could never afford to send their children to private schools or at least not enough to send her child to the local state school in solidarity, to work within the system to improve the local state school. She is cross to have to give up the privilege that her child is enjoying, though to be honest the benefit is probably mostly in those years through to GCSE at 16. Many people choose to move their children at 16 within both state and private education.

She feels cross and maybe a bit reduced to her neighbours’ level.

She is not wealthy enough. Not now.

Ho hum.

Am I the hypocrite, or is she?