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Wealthy parents should pay to send children to top state schools, says leading headmaster Tories reject proposal to charge wealthy parents to send children to top state schools
(about 3 hours later)
Wealthy parents should have to pay to send their children to the best-performing state schools, according to a leading headmaster. The headmaster of a leading public school who proposed making wealthy parents pay to send their children to top state schools defended his idea yesterday, saying it would increase social mobility.
Dr Anthony Seldon, who is master of the private Wellington College in Berkshire, said any families earning more than £80,000 should contribute financially if their children attend a popular state school. Anthony Seldon, the head teacher at the £33,000-a-year Wellington College, said his blueprint to make parents earning more than £80,000 a year pay a fee for their children to attend leading state schools would break “the middle class stranglehold” on such establishments.
He said that parents with a combined income above £200,000 could be made to pay the same amount as they would for top independent schools, which should themselves offer a quarter of places to children from the poorest backgrounds. The proposal, laid out in a report for the cross-party think tank the Social Market Foundation and presented to the major political parties, received an icy response from ministers. A spokesman for the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, said: “This will not be Conservative Party policy.”
The measures, published in a report from the cross-party thinktank the Social Market Foundation (SMF), have been put forward as a radical way to close the gap between state and independent schools and increase social mobility. But Dr Seldon, a biographer of the former prime minister Tony Blair and an outspoken commentator on education policy, said his proposals were primarily designed to ensure that the least well-off had better access to the highest-quality education by introducing means testing at state schools.
Michael Gove’s Department for Education has already dismissed the proposals, which would also look to “bond” the two types of schools with shared teaching and facilities. He said his reforms, which would also require private schools to set aside a quarter of places for low-income pupils, were designed to reduce the domination of places at leading state schools by parents who could afford to move into prohibitively expensive catchment areas and pay for extra tuition.
Dr Seldon said: “Social mobility in Britain has been declining and the gulf between independent and state schools has been growing. Only radical proposals such as these will address this problem. And they are long overdue. Dr Seldon told The Independent: “The problem with social mobility is now so chronic that we have to do something more radical. What these proposals do is get the bottom 25 per cent of society into top state schools and into independent schools.
“These proposals are sensible, workable and fair, and if enacted would result in much better and fairer education for all.” “It is designed to address problems that no government, whether of the right or left, has had the guts to tackle. There is incredible differentiation and isolation within the state sector. These are proposals to which people have to listen.”
One proposal would see popular state schools being means tested, with the most affluent parents being charged for their children to attend top schools. A family with an income of more than £200,000 would be expected to pay about £6,000 to fund their children’s education at a popular state school, rising to the same level as the private sector for the most highly-rated establishments – about £15,000 a year for a primary and £20,000 for a secondary place. The charges would apply on a sliding scale, starting at about £100 per term for parents with a combined income of £80,000.
The report suggested this “parent premium” for households earning over £200,000 a year would generate surplus funds, a quarter of which would be retained by the school themselves, with the rest redistributed among state schools at large. Dr Seldon said the move would help narrow the “unfair” gap between the academic results and career prospects of the richest and poorest children by using the money raised to fund more teachers and smaller classes. A quarter of the money raised would be retained by the school and the remainder distributed among other state schools.
Dr Seldon said that reserving 25 per cent of independent school places for pupils from the least affluent homes would guarantee the maximum benefits for the least privileged students. He denied that the effect of the policy would be a boon for private schools such as his own by persuading wealthy parents to switch their offspring to independent education.
These children would be paid for using Government grants, capped at a maximum of 50 per cent above what it would have cost for the child to attend state school. The report claimed that private schools offered the best model of education and that the state sector should seek to emulate features such as house systems, boarding, longer school days and strict enforcement of uniform codes.
The system of “bonding” schools could also extend to sponsoring an academy or setting up a free school, the report said. Dr Seldon said the introduction of fees  would be coupled with a requirement for the best-performing schools to reserve a quarter of places for pupils from low-income brackets.
Dr Seldon said state schools should take on the best features of independent schools, such as house systems, longer school days, options for boarding, school uniforms and greater parental involvement. Sir Michael Wilshaw, the head of the education watchdog Ofsted, warned last month that the widening gap in pupil attainment meant education was becoming “two nations”. He has previously warned that grammar schools are “stuffed full” of middle-class pupils and make no contribution to social mobility.
Emran Mian, director of the SMF, said: “Anthony Seldon is trying to use excellence wherever he can find it in the schools system to give opportunities to the most disadvantaged.
“His agnosticism - 'who cares if the school is state or independent, so long as it's accessible to the most talented, not the richest?' - will make some on the political right, as well as the left, uncomfortable.
“But a new wave of radical reform across the major public services might be the only way to manage another five years of austerity while improving results.”
The Sunday Times reported that Dr Seldon has discussed the plans with politicians from both the Tories and Labour.
But a spokesman for Education Secretary Michael Gove said: “This will not be Conservative Party policy.”