The Virtuous Wealthy, Private Education

 The website of Eton College promises that "Eton believes in equal opportunity for everyone irrespective of gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, belief, disability or social demographic background." Before you dispatch your progeny to claim their free first-class education at this socialist paradise by the Thames, it is worth checking the "fees" section of the same website which takes a rather less egalitarian line on the issue of "social and demographic background"...

A battle over private education looms. Concerned parents are already wondering whether they can pay next year's fees in advance of the next election. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the coming row it will at least expose an important modern hypocrisy: for all their elaborate trumpetings to the contrary, private schools are not instruments of social justice. That they have come to believe they are is richly amusing. But it is also concerning...

Allegory of Virtue
1640-1649
Albert Freyse (d. 1652)
Photo Credit: Manchester Art Gallery [CC BY-NC-ND] 

The richest children in the country should not be taught that they are ethical heroes and that the schools educating them are bastions of equality. It reinforces one of the most pernicious trends of our time: the very wealthy have come to believe not only in their material but also their moral superiority...

A member of staff at Winchester College boasts that "progressive allies not only believe in equality but actively advocate for it, as a driving force to protect the community and fight against injustices". Exactly how educating the children of millionaires contributes to the "fight against injustice" is not explained...

The pious posturing of public schools  has little to do with aiding the disadvantaged and lots to do with furthering the interests of the wealthy. Fluency in the language of "inclusivity" is now de rigueur in many of society's most exclusive institutions. Banks and corporate law firms boast equality statements and diversity officers...

Private schools have much less to say about class or poverty than about race or gender... The Times reported last week that the wealthy are giving much less to charity than they once did. Why would they bother when they have been taught that they are so virtuous?

(James Marriott, The Times, 2024)

Labour is proposing a plan to apply VAT to private school fees with the money earmarked for the state education sector. (For foreign readers, public schools in the UK are private schools!) The fees at Eton are almost £50,000 per year and about six per cent of UK children attend a private school. 

Private Education

A report by the Sutton Trust indicated that children educated privately were 12 times more likely to end up in influential jobs than children comprehensively educated.

…You can’t blame parents for wanting to do what they see as best by their children. The paradox of the Sutton Trust report is that, even as it highlights a huge social problem, it also underlines the great advantage conferred by attending a top public school, followed by an elite university, in charting a route to career success.

…It’s precisely because you can’t expect parents to make the most socially beneficial decisions that more radical government intervention is needed. There’s always the nuclear option of effectively scrapping private schools by banning them from charging fees, as Finland did in the 1970s (It now has one of the most equitable and high-performing school systems in the world.)

…If the left is serious about breaking the cycle through which privilege begets privilege, it needs to do more uncomfortable thinking about how to level down, as well as level up.

(Sonia Sodha, The Observer, 2019)

Take the nuclear option. However, keep the private schools as schools with entry based on talent, not money. Most private schools will have a ‘reputation’ for sport, drama, music or one or more of the academic subjects. Chetham’s, a specialist music school in Manchester, is also an example of means tested funding where parents who are well off pay the full fees whilst those who earn less than £20,000 a year pay a few hundred pounds Thus musical potential, not background or ability to pay becomes the norm.

*As someone who has always believed that selling education is wrong, I found myself nodding in agreement with Sonia Sodha’s piece…I was cheered by her praise of Finland’s abolition of fee-paying and her characterisation of Labour’s position as “a damp education squib”

But then she came up with what seemed to me an over-complicated scheme of tackling the mis-named “public” schools through universities. Why not emulate Finland? The governing bodies of the schools could be given a reasonable period of time to put forward their own propositions for integration into the state system. Many have excellent sporting facilities and some have specialities in music and other areas. They could transform themselves into specialist schools for children who demonstrated gifts in such areas and recruit on merit rather than on the basis of parental incomes.

(Ian Bullock, Brighton, The Observer, 2019)

*In an otherwise excellent article, Sonia Sodha suggests that banning private schools from charging fees may be “deemed impossible”. However, determined political action based upon a coherent long-term vision is not only possible but is the key to developing an education system that is both equitable and high-performing.

The inherent inequity and social divisiveness of the current system will not be seriously reduced by such measures as widening access to elite universities because the power of the most prestigious schools is not primarily educational but socio-economic: when it comes to having easy access to elite positions in society, going to Eton is vastly more important than going to Oxford.

Nor will financial measures such as removing tax advantages have much impact: parents who can afford more than £40,000 on basic fees will hardly notice the increase in costs.

(Michael Pyke, Shenstone, Lichfield, Staffs, The Observer, 2019)

*Eton College is to offer 12 free places to boys from challenging backgrounds who do not have the highest grades.

The new Orwell award is designed to help those with academic ability but little chance to fulfil their potential.

The places…will be offered to year 11 pupils at non-selective state schools. Standard annual fees for Eton are £42,500 per boy.

…The announcement comes at a time of increasing pressure on the sector to diversify and widen participation.

Simon Henderson, the school’s head, said: “We are not targeting boys who will do well anyway. We’re looking for applicants with vigour, talent and industry who, without proper support, will not be prepared for or even apply to the country’s top universities.

(The Guardian, 2019)