Alastair Campbell (National Treasure) on private schools
As though they weren't privileged enough already...private school Bursars get to meet Alastair Campbell, in person...and hear his wisdom on the services they provide.
Last week, finance directors of independent schools were lucky enough to hear Alastair Campbell’s thoughts on schools and VAT. This post reviews his speech and why he thinks it’s a Very Good Idea to tax education. I’m also sure we can all remember other things that Alastair Campbell thought were a Very Good Idea….but let’s do the content instead of the ad hominems.
My last post quoted Andrew Lewer MP (Conservative) and Munira Wilson MP (Lib Dem) strongly agreeing that it’s a Very Bad Idea to tax education.
“It is also a fundamental principle that we do not tax the supply of education…the UK would be an outlier if Labour abandoned that policy.”
“Let me be clear: we do not support ending the VAT exemption for independent schools, for the very simple reason that we do not support taxing education.”
As we peel back the feeble economic and fiscal rationale for VAT we’ll reveal people that fundamentally loathe private schools. Even if VAT doesn’t raise any money, they’ll say, it’s still worth it…harming private schools isn’t a bad side-effect of the tax, it’s the whole point. So here’s Campbell’s speech and his self-congratulatory review.
Given both the audience and his reputation for self-awareness, I wonder if his speech went down as well as he thinks it did, or if he’s just not used to being with people who are polite.
Alastair’s driving beliefs…
“My driving belief is in equality of opportunity, and I think that can best be aimed for by an education system in which we all feel, parents, teachers and children alike, a sense of joint ownership and joint endeavour”
Do parents at comprehensive schools feel a sense of ownership? What does “joint ownership” even mean in context of state education? Of course, it means “take what you’re given by people like me.” Down with choice boo-hiss.
Personally, I share Campbell’s “driving belief” in opportunity, if not strictly in equality of opportunity (not because I don’t like the idea, but because I’m practical). Unlike him, I don’t think robbing opportunities from Peter creates better opportunities for Paul. I think (1) Peter and Paul are better off if general prosperity creates opportunities for both and (2) current and future prosperity are helped if families work their socks off and invest in education and (3) the state can do more for Paul if Peter’s family look after themselves.
Regarding the VAT policy specifically:
“I see this as a specific change to make the education system fairer and raise money to spend on other elements of education. I don’t think you should imagine it represents a step on the road to your demise. Leave that nonsense to the Mail and the Telegraph and the like.”
There is a significant risk this doesn’t raise money. Of course, Campbell goes on to recite the abominable IFS report which I covered here. There are other ways to raise money, such as dipping into the the £18.1bn of overhead spent on “strategy” and “research” by the Department of Education - but why use money that’s already taken from taxpayers, when there’s a chance to wage class warfare?
It’s also a massive leap to “make the education system fairer”. Do CTRL+F on his speech and see how many times you come up with the words “catchment area”; when he later goes off on a rant about Eton and Winchester, see if he raises any concerns about the top state schools that send an incredibly “unfair” proportion of children to Oxbridge …. every year. There are miniscule differences of outcome between top state schools and top independent schools, but colossal disparity within the state system. If any Government wants to tackle opportunity, it can do so within the state system by copying the schools that deliver value-for-money in both private and state sectors. But again, that wouldn’t be as much fun as class warfare.
Parents choices and public finances….
“But it is surely at least reasonable to ask why all other taxpayers should subsidise those choices?”
This is classic of-its-type. And it’s just awful economics. Leaving money in taxpayers’ pockets isn’t a “subsidy”, it’s just part of the VAT exemption on education that is ironically EU law (Article 132 of EU VAT directive) and sustained by almost every country in the world.
More importantly, whatever you call it, you can’t complain about it without the context (1) of the actual “subsidy” that is 100% funding of state schools, and (2) the colossal taxes paid by parents wanting to earn school fees by working harder than they otherwise might. To put it most simply…every family that chooses harder work + private school generates tens of thousands of pounds of savings for the public purse.
International comparisons…
“Now I know you can read too much into international league tables, but I do think it is interesting, and not entirely coincidental, that in countries which have consistently been near the top of them, such as Finland and Canada, there is barely a private sector worth the name.”
According to Wikipedia, “about 6% of Canadian grade ten students are in private schools”….roughly the same as the UK. Furthermore “A Statistics Canada study from 2015 found that these students tend to have higher test scores and future educational attainment than their public school counterparts. Rather than enjoying superior resources and educational practices, the most likely explanation for this discrepancy is the higher expectation of success that students experience from their parents, teachers, and fellow students”.
Not only does that sound like a flourishing private sector, but one that very strongly undermines his argument.
Meanwhile in Finland, as quoted here : “Most efforts to explain why Finland’s schools are better than others or why they do worse today than before fail to see these interdependencies in Finnish society that are essential in understanding education as an ecosystem.” To put it another way, it’s about family, respect and motivation, which “right-wingers” like me would love to see in British schools.
I know I said I would skip the ad hominems…but surely Alastair Campbell should have learned to check his sources and cite evidence with greater care?
Never mind about the children…
“Then there is the claim that ‘disadvantaged’ students will no longer be able to get into some schools because places will be taken by students coming from the private sector. But it is just as likely the ex-private school students won’t all get into their favoured schools. As a result we will have more socially mixed state schools, which I would see as a positive thing for our society.”
So two fairly startling admissions, which the Labour leadership are keen to deny: (1) there will be pupils displaced (2) the competition for preferred state schools will intensify and those with the means to win will do so (as they do already).
Whether “socially mixed state schools” are jolly good for society is dubious. It’s not great for the children forced into schools they don’t like, but we’re long past caring about children. There’s no evidence nor logic to suggest it’s good for the children already there… Campbell’s crowd never see fit to explain how it’s good for society if more affluent children are forced into unpopular schools. It seems brave to assume new arrivals will put their famous sharp elbows to “joint ownership and joint endeavour” rather than to individual tutoring; let alone to assume that those collective efforts bear any fruit in the face of all the structural issues in the state sector.
Conclusion
Keir Starmer insists that taxing education isn’t a ideological move. The measure is presented as a practical, revenue-raising exercise, regarding which he has said "We have got fantastic independent schools. I want them to thrive".
We can pick apart the practicalities, but then we’ll be left with the ideological objections to private schools from National Treasures like Alastair Campbell. Like it or not, we’re going to have to address them so we can flush them down the loo as well.
Please stay tuned for more; please subscribe and share widely; please sign Tony’s petition (101.5k).
Weapons of educational enlightenment.