"Private schools net more pupils"

The number of kids at private schools has increased by 0.8% between 2007 and 2008, apparently, as against a fall in the number of children in England & Wales aged 5 to 18 of 0.4% (per the trusty population pyramind). So that makes a real rise of over 1%, which is quite significant*.

As ever, these buggers are obsessed with average fees at private schools, given as £11,253. Who gives a shit what the average is? The average is skewed by super-snob schools like Mill Hill and so on. Where my kids go is a damn' sight cheaper than the average (albeit they go to primary school) and that's what matters to me.

But the fact that so many more parents are prepared to fork out twice for education, once for the State system via taxes and once out of post-tax income, says a lot about the State system. Put briefly, it's shit, notwithstanding that are probably lots of good State schools - and those are the ones with the lowest funding**, natch.

* I suppose one counter-argument for statistics buffs is, if people are having fewer kids, their net income-per-child is slightly higher, so they are more likely to be able to afford private.

** Obviously, 'targetting' funds at 'deprived' schools means taking it away from decent schools in nicer areas. Nice stat further down the link, "overall average per pupil funding, including capital and ICT spending, will reach £6,600 – doubling in real terms since 1997". That £6,600 cheerfully ignores DfES and quango overheads and Teachers' Pensions, which add another 20% or so, so the real cost is nigh on £8,000. The DfES annual report shows that spending per pupil in primary schools is a lot lower than in secondaries, so it's maybe £6,000 per pupil*** at primaries and £10,000 at secondaries?

*** Which is roughly what we are spending per child.

Mmmm ... tasty vouchers!