Anthony Seldon, headmaster of the innovative 'Wellington College' has a new idea; he wants to stop those with a bit of money from accessing state education for free.
Notwithstanding that anyone earning much more than £40,000 a year already has 42% of the excess stolen by the government at source, Seldon now wants higher earners, whom he defines as families with an income of over £80,000 a year, to have to pay if their children go to the 'most popular' state schools; presumably this would be regardless of whether the school in question was simply the local school. He believes that such an approach would break what he sees as the 'middle class stranglehold on top state schools' and would provide funds for reinvestment in other areas of education. As an aside, he also says that 'poorer pupils' should fill a quarter of private school places.
Seldon’s views have been published in a report he’s produced for the left-of-centre ‘Social Market Foundation’ and are another attack on everyone who has anything. Conflating the ‘most popular’ schools with the ‘best’ would hand socialist councillors and ministers a heaven-sent opportunity to milk the so-called rich wherever they live. The reference to a ‘middle class stranglehold’ is so nebulous as to be useless in any arena other than that patrolled by the left wing politicians who hate anyone seen to be ‘middle class’.
I haven't read the report, only the media reports of it, but there is no indication that Seldon has taken any account of the variation of earnings across the country or, indeed, the variation in schools and educational standards across the nation. He doesn't appear to have paid attention to the aspirations of those of 'middle class' who want to get the best for their children from the assorted, and significant, taxes that they already pay. His approach seems to be focused on money rather than education and it would be the children of the middle classes, those on whom the future of the country depends, who would suffer.
In all honesty, if I was younger and with children, I'd be booking my tickets and leaving this benighted country. As John Betjeman once said of Slough 'It isn't fit for humans now'.
Notwithstanding that anyone earning much more than £40,000 a year already has 42% of the excess stolen by the government at source, Seldon now wants higher earners, whom he defines as families with an income of over £80,000 a year, to have to pay if their children go to the 'most popular' state schools; presumably this would be regardless of whether the school in question was simply the local school. He believes that such an approach would break what he sees as the 'middle class stranglehold on top state schools' and would provide funds for reinvestment in other areas of education. As an aside, he also says that 'poorer pupils' should fill a quarter of private school places.
Seldon’s views have been published in a report he’s produced for the left-of-centre ‘Social Market Foundation’ and are another attack on everyone who has anything. Conflating the ‘most popular’ schools with the ‘best’ would hand socialist councillors and ministers a heaven-sent opportunity to milk the so-called rich wherever they live. The reference to a ‘middle class stranglehold’ is so nebulous as to be useless in any arena other than that patrolled by the left wing politicians who hate anyone seen to be ‘middle class’.
I haven't read the report, only the media reports of it, but there is no indication that Seldon has taken any account of the variation of earnings across the country or, indeed, the variation in schools and educational standards across the nation. He doesn't appear to have paid attention to the aspirations of those of 'middle class' who want to get the best for their children from the assorted, and significant, taxes that they already pay. His approach seems to be focused on money rather than education and it would be the children of the middle classes, those on whom the future of the country depends, who would suffer.
In all honesty, if I was younger and with children, I'd be booking my tickets and leaving this benighted country. As John Betjeman once said of Slough 'It isn't fit for humans now'.
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