There’s a long-held myth about private schools: if you take away their special tax exemptions — they have charitable status, and parents aren’t charged VAT on fees — vast numbers of children will flood into the state sector, and this will actually end up costing the Government money.
The idea got another airing recently in reaction to a Labour policy which would remove private school tax breaks. The Daily Mail, for example, has claimed this would cost the Government £400m, as parents could no longer afford fees, meaning more state schools would have to be built. (And, by the way, schools would stop offering concessions to some pupils).
