VAT on private school fees takes away choice

Western Daily Press, 25 June 2024, p. 17

Alan Jeffery raises the issue of VAT on private school fees (Starmer’s attack on private schools, June 20). What is often missed in this argument is that there are some ‘private’ schools that are populated by families who are far from rich and well-off. As a former Steiner teacher myself, those I know best are the Steiner Waldorf schools.

Even without an imposition of VAT on school fees, many ‘alternative’ families who enthusiastically opt for Steiner education can barely afford it – precisely because they tend to be non-materialistic, more spiritually inclined folk who don’t prioritise making shed-loads of money in their lives.

In at least some of those cases, the indiscriminate imposition of VAT on school fees by Labour will break the camel’s back, and they just won’t be able to afford fees any more – and at the margin, schools will very likely have to close.

And just to rub salt into the wounds of non-rich families determined to protect their childrein from state education, they actually end up paying twice for their children’s education: once for the state system they don’t use through their taxes; and then once again with school fees they can barely afford.

How on earth can that be fair or ‘equitable’, Sir Keir? Or perhaps Labour actually wants to make it harder for parents to opt out from a state education system they reject on principle.

Not that the Conservatives have anything to crow about regarding what’s happened to Steiner schools under their watch. The attacks on the region’s Steiner schools that have taken place under the present government have been an outrage, with a number of excellent schools having been summarily closed by the Ofsted regime, against the strong wishes of the vast majority of parents and chlidren. Outrageous.

So it seems that in the case of ‘alternative’ approaches to education outside of the state sector, such schools will come under attack whether we have a Conservative or a Labour government. Just one more reason not to vote for either of the mainstream uni-parties – and certainly neither Labour nor Conservative.

Dr Richard House

Stroud, Gloucestershire

Other Letters to the Press