Stop subsidising private schools

OVERALL JUST 7% of children are educated at 'independent' ie private, fee-paying schools. But the figure for people in the top jobs is 53%, according to a survey carried out for Sutton Trust educational charity. 70% of judges, 54% of top business executives and journalists, 51% of leading medics and 38% of top politicians were educated at private schools.

Private schools, bizarrely known as 'public schools' in Britain, get tax relief as 'charities' and cash from the parents of their charges, whom they coach as future elites. Have New Labour even started to attack the tax relief on public schools? No. Have they increased staffing and reduced class sizes in the state sector to equal those of the private sector? No.

45% more is still spent per pupil in private school education than in state schools. Private schools should be abolished and state schooling given the resources to get the best out of every child.