School choice is the zeitgeist, and it's no surprise the Labour party ignores it
While the Labour Party plans to increase the state's existing 93pc monopoly in UK education, more and more countries are going the other way
I’ve previously written about the strongly-negative fiscal implications of Labour’s “VAT for independent schools” policy. Labour’s sole claim is that their policy will raise £1.7bn towards improving state schools. If it doesn’t, it’s a failure. Concerns about the negative fiscal impact of the policy are therefore a sufficient reason to reject it.
There’s another side to the ghastliness of this authoritarian policy, however, which is that it expands the state’s provision of education while more enlightened economies are instead increasing the role of the independent sector, and creating more space for mixed private/public funding.
Starting in that well-known Thatcherite hell-hole, Denmark, where you might have assumed the state rules supreme given relatively high taxes… as the Fraser Institute points, out, you’d be wrong. Chapter 4 of their report has the details.
Here’s a taste
“Although schools are heavily financed by government, local communities and individuals maintain pedagogical and organizational control of much of the country’s primary and local secondary schooling. Denmark’s independent school sector has played an important and significant role in this schooling, both historically and at present. Danish schools are characterized by diversity, autonomy, and a uniquely long-standing historical commitment to government-funded independent schools and parental choice in education, rather than a specific model of schooling.”
45 pc of Danish schools are non-profit independent primary and lower secondaries
These receive financial support from the government
16pc (and growing) of children attend independent schools
Independent schools have considerable autonomy over admissions, curriculum and teaching styles
The existence of this thriving independent sector has cross-party support
The OECD has found that school choice plus autonomy has contributed to a high degree of innovation
“The expansion of Denmark’s school choice policies in the 1990s and early 2000s coincided with a 45 percent increase in independent school enrolment between 1998 and 2018, decreasing enrolment in government public schools, increasing secondary graduation rates, and increasing student achievement in math and reading, particularly in independent schools, which have lifted student achievement since the country’s school choice policies were expanded. Student achievement has improved alongside graduation rates without increasing education spending as a share of either GDP or total government spending.”
Other places with school choice
If you read the Guardian, you might be seduced into thinking that the UK is a hot-bed of Ayn Rand toting capitalists. The profit motive’s destroyed everything, we’d be so much better off if we allowed Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer to lead us to those socialistic uplands, like our more sensible friends all over the world.
You couldn’t be more wrong. First of all, of course, there’s the USA, where Dan Mitchell is fond of blogging about the growth of school choice. Not only is it catching on, now featuring in 9 states, but it’s feted by parents and shown to be delivering economic benefit. It’s typically opposed, of course, by teaching unions, which is even more reason to think it’s a good idea.
So much for the USA. They’re all profit-seeking rats as well (you might think). But there’s also
France, where “Around 22% of secondary school students in France attend private schools. Generally, these schools are in demand as teaching is of a high standard. Additionally, they may offer bilingual or international curriculums, specific religious education, or a non-traditional educational approach. The state subsidizes most private schools, making their fees more affordable for parents.”
Germany where 9pc (and growing) of children attend non-profit state-subsidised private schools, which must be “affordable”, but where individual states may or may not allow the schools to charge top-up fees
So those well-known Thatcherite dens over the sea have….more kids in private schools and with substantial government funding…..than the UK. Hmm. In fact, there’s positive evidence on school choice from Netherlands, Canada, Chile . Across all of these countries we see that giving parents choice how and where to spend their public education money is popular (with parents, not unions) and delivers good results, and even tends to drive up standards in state-controlled schools.
Labour want us to swim against the tide
The IFS expects 3-7 pc of private school pupils to leave the sector if Labour impose their pet project. This is based on their “best judgment”, in other words, it’s a guess. As I’ve written here, nobody knows exactly how schools and families will respond, but the state of the economy points to an affordability crunch for private schools that Labour are going to make worse. Assessments from industry experts (with whom Labour refuse to consult) describe scenarios up to 25pc. So we could be growing the size of the state in education from 93 pc to 95pc or so, while our European neighbours are going in the opposite direction.