Your editorial makes good political sense in the short to medium term (“Our schools need radical change to overcome elitism”). If enacted, its proposals could begin to erode some of the unjustifiable privileges enjoyed by independent schools ever since Clement Attlee’s Labour government bottled out of integrating them into the state system at the end of the Second World War when their fortunes were at a nadir. But the “radical” proposals are not radical enough. State acquiescence in private education cannot be justified on ethical grounds. Education and health are fundamental rights; no one should have favoured treatment or be deprived of good provision on the arbitrary grounds of income or social class.
Professor Colin Richards
Spark Bridge, Cumbria
Your editorial rightly criticises the tax status of private schools. One unwanted consequence of their demise, however, would be the unleashing of many rather incompetent teachers who wouldn’t have a clue how to manage difficult pupils within the state sector. I speak from the experience of having children educated in both systems, and 40 years of teaching and leading local authority schools.
Hilary Richardson (Mr)
Croydon, London
