David Miliband calls for private schools to lose charitable status

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David Miliband calls for private schools to lose charitable status 8

Governance | Vibeka Mair | 23 Jun 2010

Labour leadership hopeful David Miliband has called for charitable status to be withdrawn from private schools.

Miliband (pictured) made the call in his blog, in which he mapped out his thoughts on this week’s emergency Budget.

He said it was wrong to consider scrapping the child trust fund while continuing to ‘subsidise’ private schools:

“Everyone agrees tough decisions have to be made on public spending over the coming years. But I am absolutely clear that the poorest in our society should not be forced to pay the price of the recklessness of the richest. That’s why we should look for savings at the top, not the bottom,” he said.

“For instance, taking money from the poorest children – by scrapping the child trust fund, even from kids in care – while continuing to subsidise private schools to the tune of £100m a year is just wrong. That’s half a billion pounds over the lifetime of a parliament. We should be looking at savings like that rather than cutting jobs and hospitals.”

Fee-paying schools used to get automatic charitable status. However under Labour and the passing of the Charities Act 2006, private schools now have to demonstrate public benefit to the wider public, such as giving bursaries to children from poorer families, to qualify for charitable status.

The Charity Commission, which is implementing the Charities Act 2006, has been criticised by the independent school sector and some politicians for its take on assessing public benefit.

The education secretary Michael Gove last year claimed he would enter “immediate talks” with the Commission to ask them to “soften its line on reviewing independent schools' charitable status” after two private schools were rejected charitable status applications on account of providing insufficient bursaries for poorer students.

The Sunday Times also reported this month that Gove asked Department for Education officials to talk to the Commission about placing less emphasis on bursaries when assessing the public benefit of fee-paying schools and give more credit to non-financial benefits such as sharing teachers and facilities with state schools.

The Department for Education told Civil Society that the story was just speculation.

Directory: Charity Commission

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Nakaserogirl
Administrator
17 Sep 2010

My local independent school gives 1 free place at 11 and 1 at 16. There are a few bursaries, but they nothing like cover the costs of the fees, let alone the extras. 240 children enter one local secondary school every year. That's just one school. How does the existence of a private school down the road help them? There is no way even the complete transfer of all private school children - which wouldn't happen - into the state sector is going to swamp it. The numbers make a nonsense of this flimsy fiction of charitable status which barely covers the naked self-interest of private schools' patrons. Why should the rich, or those aspiring to live like the rich, be made even richer by the subsidy of private school fees? Maybe some of the parents do scrimp and save; try life as a parent of 1 of the 3 million children on benefits if you want to know what scrimping really means. I have no sympathy. Your interests are represented because you are educated and articulate; I suppose you assume the rest of us are tugging our forelocks in gratitude for being allowed to swim in your pool once a week (on the payment of a fee to the private company hiring it.)

[Reply]

Carl Allen
24 Jun 2010

Those financially struggling private schools with their financially struggling parents, will the parents be able to claim state funds if those private schools become free schools?

Will the rule be removed ... all children must take part in any non-state funded school activity if they wish, with cost not being a barrier?

[Reply]

Norman
23 Jun 2010

Not this old chestnut Mr Miliband. Can’t you think of something more original to say about the budget and the role of private education? Parents who send their children to private schools earn well above average salaries, often run their own business thereby providing employment to others and most importantly pay high levels of tax but don’t use the state education system. Do you really want to have children transferred out of private schools into an already overburdened state sector? This is what your misguided approach would cause.

[Reply]

Vivien
Retired Bursar
None
23 Jun 2010

What about the cost of educating the children in independent schools - who will bear that burden if fee paying schools are forced to close?

[Reply]

Jonathan Sillett
23 Jun 2010
Response to [ Vivien]

A price worth paying. Raze them to the ground and destroy the last remnants of a class system which ensures those from rich backgrounds are able to maintain the vast majority of priveliged positons in society.

Having said that, the vast majority won't close, it will just mean the taxpayer is no longer funding a higher standard of education for the rich. They will adapt and become the viable businesses that they should be if they are to be allowed to exist.

[Reply]

Vivien
None
23 Jun 2010
Response to [Jonathan Sillett]

You clearly do not understand how the finances of independent schools work. But you have revealed the chip on your shoulder - that of a perceived class system. The rich backgrounds you speak of are no longer based on the old aristocracy but on wealth earned through businesses. And MANY families scrimp and save to send their children to independent school because they prefer the standards there - not because they are rich and priviledged.

Once you have razed the schools to the ground are you going to start on private health care too? Another area where people do not claim what they are entitled to from the State, but pay because it suits them to and they have probably planned for such things and put aside money judiciously rather then "blown it".

Many people also pay extra for enhanced pension cover - are you going to take that away too? It is already challenged enough due to the pathetic state of our economy.

[Reply]

Jonathan Sillett
24 Jun 2010
Response to [ Vivien]

So you think it acceptable for children to get a better start in life than others simply because their parents were successful business people? Who themselves are likely to have had a better start thanks to their parents' business success and public school contacts?

Anyway, the real point here is whether the state should subsidise the public schools. It doesnt subsidise private healthcare does it, and rightly so.

And are you saying people are poor because they have 'blown' their money away? Perhaps if you removed yourself from the public school bubble and spent time with real people you would see that most are struggling merely to make ends meet, while allowing themselves one or two luxuries to detract from what are often mindnumbingly dull jobs, be they manual or clerical.

[Reply]

Vivien
25 Jun 2010
Response to [Jonathan Sillett]

And that is what I mean about you not understanding how independent schools finances work. They DO NOT get subsidised by the State.

And do not make assumptions about me and the way I live. I am not well-heeled, did not come from a wealthy background and DO work with people who are underpriviledged and on low or very low incomes incomes.

[Reply]

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