Just curious about what the views are on here given US & Canadian view points.
The UK seems hellbent on doing this even after the Greece tried it back in 2015 (and it was an absolute disaster for children).
I am 100% against taxing a public good (because you want more of it, and not less).
This is definitely a “political choice” vs an economic one, which is why I am curious as to how people see this latest policy.
Is there a link to an article on this subject? I am not clear on what the specific proposal is?
Private schools do not meet the criteria for a “public good.” Right there in the name, after all.
Have added in a link. They want to tack on 20% VAT on private school fees.
Its a public good in the EU/UK.
I think demand for Canadian private schools may be more elastic than in the UK? British Columbia, for example, provides some funding from general tax revenues for private schools with the result that private school fees are more affordable here and there is accordingly a much higher use of them in BC than in other provinces. The thinking by BC governments is that there would be significantly more students in the public system otherwise so they are saving the 100% cost of additional students in the public system.
I think any government here that tried to introduce consumption taxes on private school fees would be widely criticized for playing the class card? It would just be seen as a political act?
Yes.
Effectively, the people that go private are saving the state about £7.5k per pupil (as they do not take up their state place but still pay the taxes)
Its definitely a “class card”, but its aimed at the wrong people.
The truly wealthy won’t care about adding in 20% VAT to their school fees (think Eton and others). Its a rounding error for them basically.
The ones that will be most impacted are those that send their kids to small independent schools because the local options are terrible (usually due to poor behavior or poor SEN provision). Those folks will not be able to absorb the price increases due to additional taxes and they will have to move their children to state schools (which will no doubt damage their education and future life chances).
The whole thing is absolutely bonkers as it will actually make educational inequality worse (less poor kids going to higher end schools) while making state schools in certain areas worse (class sizes will be too large and this will negatively impact the education of the children).
If these are the kind of policies Labour intends to pursue then there is definitely going to be rush for the exits over the next few years. There seems to be less and less reasons to stay in the UK if education is now being targeted by politicians (one of the few remaining world class exports in the UK).
In my state, we don’t tax private schools. We give them tax money. Kids who go to private schools take the $7,600 that the state normally gives public schools with them to the private school. (The state then backfills $1,200 to the public school that lost the student.)
Average public school spending per student is about $15,000, so the state grant is about half the average cost.
Yep. Going the opposite direction in the US with welfare to wealthy families that send their kids to private school.
This makes sense to me.
You give part of the funding to the parents and they can make their own choices.
I am not a big fan of only having state education available because then you run the real risk of having politicians determine what can/cannot be taught to children in those schools.
And in many states where they do that, private school tuition increased by an amount semi-comparable to the vouchers after they were put in place. Huge surprise there.
In my state, I don’t think that most of the money goes to the top 10%, if that’s what you mean by “wealthy”.
I think that most goes to schools with “Christian” in their names. The average income of those parents may be higher than the state average, but I’m guessing it isn’t a lot more than the average.
Actually that doesn’t work.
Canada has a huge Catholic school system that’s funded.
And what we get are children being indoctrinated. An entire school system that’s overtly hostile to LGBTQ people. Taxes paying for religious education. And teachers hired because they’re catholic, or more correctly, you can’t be hired if you’re not catholic. For publicly funded, public jobs.
No thanks.
That sounds like what we have over here with the Church of England schools.
They still have to teach a specific curriculum that has been vetted by the Dept of Education.
You still get the usual religious creep in the teachings, but that goes for all the other religious schools that you find (Islamic, Jewish etc).
As Space Lobster would know, there is a lot of history behind why Catholic schools are funded extensively in Canada but other folks can Google that.
I would just add that, in 1999, the United Nations Human Rights Committee determined that Canada was in violation of article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights because Ontario discriminates against non-Catholics by continuing to publicly fund separate Catholic schools, but not those of any other religious groups. Although the UNHCR has no enforcement power, I agree that no religious group should be singled out for state funding.
Vouchers often get pitched as a way for poorer families to allow their kids to attend private schools. In most cases they are welfare checks to the middle class and upper class families that were already paying for private schools.
This is a big topic in my state that was pushed in multiple failed attempts over decades directly by Betsy DeVos (Trump’s Secretary of Education) and her allies.
They would have provided tax credits equal to the cost of private education as well as take $50M directly out of the state education fund to give to private schools. Basically, free private school for wealthier people who can afford to pay for it up-front out of pocket and recoup the cost later.
The proposals were voted down in public referendum several times, then DeVos and the GOP attempted to ram it through with legislation when they had control of 2/3 of the government and failed again. Then they tried again with a public referendum, but their signature gatherers were ruled to be lying to people to get them to sign and they weren’t left with enough support.
Vouchers are exceptionally popular with most parents that send their kids to private school. Of course they deserve a welfare check for thousands annually!
Here’s a list of private schools in Iowa by tuition cost. I see lots of pretty “cheap” schools. Consider that the average spending for public schools is about $15,000.
Georgia may be different.
Iowa is a good example. 2/3 of voucher recipients already attended private school. Welfare is popular.