Mike Harris (Scrap the plan for VAT on private schools, Labour. Just let low-income kids attend instead, 20 May) suggests that independent schools should give free places to low-income children to avoid paying VAT and that independent schools are saving the state £8,000 a year per pupil. This is wrong for the following reasons:
1. State schools will still need to exist, albeit with fewer pupils. This would result in budget cuts for them as their income is directly linked to the number of pupils on their rolls. In order to run effectively, they would have to cut staff, or the state would have to increase the amount paid per pupil.
2. Most independent schools select their intake. Independent schools that claim to act charitably when educating, at a discount, children from poorer families do not take pupils with special education needs and disabilities or behavioural problems. They take the more able pupils.
3. There is a benefit for all students when there are more affluent families and more able pupils in the mix.
Also, please note that, like most state school teachers, I find insulting the implication that children will be better taught in the independent sector. Harris should compare the cost per pupil in each sector, relative class sizes and the ability range differences to see where the very best teaching happens every day.
Christine Maxwell
Merriott, Somerset
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