People might think they're landing a blow on Eton types with private school taxes - what they're really doing is driving out provincial schools, with their long history, modest fees and lots of bursaries, which have served a place for an age, interwoven into the local fabric

As well as providing choice where there might be any, and an alternative where there might not be any, they are also filled not with millionaires and children of aristrocrats, but kids of diverse backgrounds and fees accessible to more than the stereotypes suggest

I get where the politics of envy comes from - I couldn't possibly afford to send my kids to private school, even if we wanted, which we don't - but there are bigger principles at play here and we shouldn't sabotage something good when it's not clear it will makes things better

And again, I'm thinking here not about the stereotypicals - the Eton, the Harrow etc - but the small provincial schools that are a part of our history and heritage and communities and on these grounds alone deserve better than to be used as a pawn in class war politics

@michael_merrick Where are you getting the money from to make the state sector better?

@LeeDon1982 Kind of confirms the class war thesis right

@michael_merrick No. They don't provide a "model of excellence". They have smaller class sizes and none of the attendant issues that come with poverty, whether that be SMEH, attendance, lack of parental engagement etc.

@CFunkmeister Like it or not, yes they do. For example, a lot do better than the state sector on arts, performance and sports. That is something good, a model of excellence, and one that stand as both a siren call and an obligation to a state sector that has insufficiently valued these things.

@michael_merrick I despair of the 'make state schools as good as the private sector' argument. It will never happen, so is really just a call to maintain the status quo.

@SimonFParker If it will never happen then all we can ever have is the status quo.

@michael_merrick The model of excellence being: you have 2 or 3 times the resources per capita, half the class sizes, and you can exclude the most socially disadvantaged children and the lowest achievers. In what way is this ‘model’ useful to state schools?

@minifingerz

@michael_merrick It cant be both 'naked class warfare' & also only effect 'kids of diverse backgrounds and fees accessible to more than the stereotypes suggest' Fact is social & economic exclusion via a 2 tier education system is part of why the country is currently so screwed

@DangleSpanners By scale, there is far more widespread social and economic exclusion within the state sector. If I trusted this is what the real motivation was, I would expect the argument to start there.

@michael_merrick “The private sector provides a model of excellence”… Yeah, just like with track and trace, PPE provision and the railway and water companies. They are excellent and funnelling the money of the proles into offshore bank accounts. Nothing more.

@J_Wat07

@michael_merrick And did so *before* the state thought it worthwhile.

@michael_merrick Not a model of excellence. Not a different way of doing things. Just more resources and greater privilege, subsidised by the state. Give those extra resources to all kids and privilege all.

@michael_merrick They are institutions which allow an overwhelmingly affluent clientel to further embed their social & economic advantages. The sector is awash with cash while state school funding stagnates: abolishing their VAT exemption is the least that can be done to address that disparity.

@michael_merrick Independent schools themselves are a form of class war. To continue this analogy, putting VAT on fees, or the removal of exclusions from certain taxes, is merely a very belated defence.

@michael_merrick Well done, so much nonsense in one tweet.