Gareth is standing up for parents and families in our area by opposing Labour’s plan to tax parents, by attacking some of our best schools.
Here in our area, 94% of our schools are rated good or outstanding – it is a key reason why so many parents move to the area and raise a family here. And yet, despite this success, Labour want to penalize parents by proposing to put 20% VAT on independent school fees.
Taxing independent schools would have a negative impact on all children and schools in our area.
· For local parents who work incredibly hard to and choose to send their children to private school - their right to make choices over education should not be taken away by Labour. Gareth is very concerned about the effect Labour’s 20% tax would have on hard-working families in our area.
· For our fantastic state schools – Labour’s 20% tax would increase the pressure on our state schools. Due to Labour’s tax, many families would no longer be able to take the decision to send their children to private schools. This means a huge number of children would suddenly be entering into the state education sector, which would cause disruption to local schools, which are already oversubscribed and have incredibly small catchment areas. The cost of an influx of pupils to state schools has also not been accounted for by Labour. There will be a greater strain on finances available for the state sector, and state school funding per pupil would have to decrease sharply.
· For our most disadvantaged children – attacking independent schools will reduce the number of bursaries that are currently offered to pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and the thousands of outreach programs that independent schools provide across our area.
Gareth believes that our wide range of schools have so much to offer and should be celebrated rather than attacked by yet another tax.
Sign the petition and send a clear message to Labour – scrap the proposed tax!
