Charity.
When you hear that word, what comes to mind?
For most of us, it likely conjures the image of a selfless group of volunteers who work tirelessly to provide vital support for those who need it most in our society.
You likely won’t picture the nation’s most elite institutions with rowing clubs, black tie dinners and a membership made up of some of the world’s wealthiest people.
This week, Rishi Sunak has come under fire after attacking Labour’s plans to end the tax-exempt status of private schools.
Currently, private schools can claim charitable status in order to secure tax relief on things such as business rates.
In other words, schools that in some cases charge upwards of £40,000 a year in fees, that house and educate families with substantial inherited wealth and power, entrenching inequality, can effectively be handed taxpayers’ money because they are officially a charity.
In this nation of stark division between the richest and poorest, I’m not sure anything sums up the state of British equality than private school students having to fork up less for their fees while some of the country’s most disadvantaged pupils come to school hungry.
As Keir Starmer pointed out in yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Questions, Winchester College (Rishi Sunak’s old school) has essentially been handed £6million pounds of taxpayers’ money this year alone. Think about what that money could do for those who need it.
As a secondary school teacher in a state school, I know the tangible, life-changing difference that £6million pounds could do for a school serving the most disadvantaged communities.
Let me paint you a grim picture.
Already overworked teachers are grappling with the lasting impact of the pandemic. Underfunded schools in dilapidated buildings are quite literally falling to pieces under the weight of successive cuts and over a decade of austerity.
A recruitment crisis looms as experienced professionals leave for jobs that can keep them and their families afloat.
The decision to maintain the charitable status of private schools exposes how truly tone-deaf Conservative Government is
Pupils are coming to school with rumbling stomachs as parents cut back on food as they grapple with the impossible choice of heating or eating.
Schools that might have once provided free breakfast for all pupils are now forced to forfeit this vital lifeline in favour of paying the ever-soaring electricity bill.
This is the reality in state schools across the UK, and considering that, and our wider economic climate, why should money be handed on a platter to those who are already born with a silver spoon in their mouths?
The government seems more than content even amid this crisis to allow the rich to purchase a tax free, world-class education for their children, while their most impoverished peers bear the brunt of cuts.
Imagine what could be done if that money was to be pooled into state education or used to further the government’s apparently forgotten Levelling Up agenda.
Inequality is only deepening as the cost-of-living crisis ferments, and I believe this is just one way to tackle it.
In my view, the decision to maintain the charitable status of private schools exposes how truly tone-deaf Conservative Government is – not to mention self-serving.
Rishi Sunak’s cabinet is already disproportionately made up of those who went to private school – a staggering 65% compared to roughly 7% of the general population.
And schools like Eton already have a reputation of being breeding grounds not only of top politicians (with 20 British Prime Ministers attending the elite school), but of classism and elitism.
This was thrown into sharp relief with the revelation last month that Eton students heckled and jeered state school girls following a talk given by Nigel Farage.
The alleged behaviour from pupils was appalling, and that’s before you consider the fact that the ex-leader of UKIP, who espouses extreme anti-immigrant views is being invited to speak to a student body which, history shows, will likely contain our future leaders.
Tax breaks for private schools is merely another in a series of disasters that spells out the government’s lack of genuine commitment to levelling up.
Schools are fundamental to the national conversation about social mobility because I’ve seen how much a school – or, rather, the level of funding and support a specific school receives – can make or break a student’s life chances.
Why else do students in schools like Eton disproportionately make up our governing bodies and leaders?
While some schools receive taxpayers money to fund their already top-class education, others are teaching students under crumbling ceilings and with textbooks that are decades old.
It has to change.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk.
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