Private schools - A dishonest argument

A Teachers’ Union of Ireland spokesman yesterday suggested fee paying schools should reimburse the State for salaries paid to teachers employed in these schools out of their fee income.

This ignores the fact that parents of children in these schools have paid the state to provide for their children’s education through their taxes. Is the TUI really suggesting these parents pay for that privilege twice? This of course is the kind of silly argument advanced when ideology is disguised as economic reform.

Every child in the State is entitled to a State-funded education and supports should generally be the same for every child. If a family is lucky and committed enough to education to augment that, then so be it. That is how our capitalist world works and to pretend otherwise is dishonest and naive.