OK, the Independent School Council are hardly impartial, but they've hit the nail on the head with this, as reported in The Daily Hatemail:
The cost of educating a child in the state system is greater than in many private schools, it has been claimed. Fee-paying schools work out cheaper because millions [billons, shurely?] of pounds of public money is being spent on bureaucracy, a headteachers' leader said. And he warned that, despite the huge sums being pumped into state schooling, 'an awful lot of money never gets close to a child's education'.
The Rev Tim Hastie-Smith, chairman of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, made the claims as research by the Independent Schools Council suggested the cost of educating a child in the state system is in excess of £9,000 a year. This compares to the findings of a recent census, which revealed average fees for pupils at independent day schools stand at £9,069 a year, although dozens [slightly more than half, i.e. hundreds, shurely?] charge less.
As ever, you read it on this 'blog seven months ago, picked up by Tim W at The Spectator.
Dearieme's comment was prescient: "I was just hoping that one further tweak would get it above £10k. Then you could get the Daily Mail to carry the story." It seems that £9,000 was the magic figure that The Mail was looking for. Ah well.
UPDATE: And don't get me started on 'Academies'.They are even more expensive than anything else and educational outcomes are just as bad as anywhere else in the State sector. Vouchers is the way forward.
Saturday, 27 September 2008
State schools 'cost more than private because of Labour's red tape'
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2 comments:
I'd really like to see the Rev Tim Hastie-Smith's sums, because I think he's missing something.
The total UK Education budget is £63.7 billion.
There are 6,600,000 children in primary school and secondary school, years 1-11.
The Schools' UK Budget is £36 billion.
If you say the whole education budget could be spent on in-school children you get £9,651 per child. But if you only look at the schools' budget you get £5,454 per child.
The question: where does the rest of the money go?
It goes into tertiary education - sixth form college, further and tech colleges, universities. Also pre-school, nursery. LEA services that school cannot provide like payroll and HR, building services and the like. It also covers pupil referral units, educational psychologists and the like. You might think this is all centralised waste, but there is genuine work that a school cannot do and needs LEA support. Remember that in the independent sector, they don't have to deal with kids with special needs etc.
Without a breakdown, you can't tell how much is wasted on central DFES costs that do not impact on education and what is spent on services that really support children.
But then this was published in the daily mail, so of course its rubbish.
M,
Rev T-S is probably missing the fact that the actuarial cost of current teacher's pension promises adds about £10 billion to the cost of State education. (see the earlier post to which I linked).
Are you suggesting that private schools don't pay for payroll and HR, building services and the like?
Have you followed all the links to official stat's in my earlier post (that don't even reconcile?)
I agree, private schools also get charitable tax breaks worth a few £100 per pupil, and like I said, there is a big margin of error, but the obsession with average fees in private sector is misplaced - the important point is that there is no significant difference between average cost of State pupil (however measured) and private school fees for the better-value private schools. It can't be more than 10% either way.
And a large part of pre-school costs are covered by Tax Credits and Employer Nursery vouchers and do not appear in DfES stat's.
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