The pandemic ought to be the turning point in the debate about private schools | Frances Ryan

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

62% : Even the slightest attempts to tilt the balance towards state school pupils are too often greeted with hysteria from private schools.
55% : We have been stuck listening to the same old myths for years, from the idea that private schools deserve tax breaks because they provide bursaries to poorer children (in fact "financial assistance" is considerably more likely to go to affluent middle-class families), to the claim that tax breaks let ordinary families buy an elite education
54% : Economic inequalities outside the classroom need to be addressed, by reducing child poverty through higher wages and social security, and building affordable housing to stop children growing up in temporary, crowded homes.
51% : Keir Starmer's pledge earlier this week to end the lucrative tax breaks given to private schools has predictably brought out the usual critics.
51% : Whether it's siphoning off bright classmates and influential parents from the state sector, or depriving the state of resources through tax breaks, every leg up that private schools enjoy erodes the life chances of less lucky pupils.
50% : It is a testament to the hold that class privilege has in this country that even such a modest attempt to keep private schools in check is repeatedly resisted.
49% : The "charitable status" of private schools is an oxymoron of longstanding.
49% : (the average annual fee for independent schools is £15,191, by some estimates half the average UK salary, before tax).

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