Tax exemptions on private schools are a “luxury we cannot afford,” according to the education secretary ahead of a new policy. Bridget Phillipson has defended the government’s decision to end the exemption writing in the Sunday Telegraph.
“Very few families” she said, would leave the schools as a result. She also told the Sunday Times that middle-class parents supported the decision, having been “priced out” of private education.
The opposition Conservative party however have labelled a “vindictive policy that will worsen the education of every single child, regardless of the school they are educated in.”
The policy was highlighted during the autumn Budget by Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Phillipson wrote in the Telegraph that the money raised would be invested in state schools and teacher recruitment. £1.8 billion would be raised annually by 2029-30, she said.
But the Independent Schools Council (ISC), a representative for most of the nation’s private schools, said that this figure is an “estimate, not a fact.”
“The negative effects of this unprecedented tax on education will be felt by families and children across state and independent schools,” the ISC’s chief executive, Julie Robinson said.
They are not alone, Robinson added, in predicting that the policy “could cost the treasury money and would damage state education” as a result of the cost of educating more children in the sector.
Phillipson said that around 93% of the country’s children are in state schools. The government has promised to recruit 6,500 additional teachers and the money raised by the policy would fund it, she said.
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