Fee-paying pupils are collateral damage in phoney school class war

WHO created the fee-charging schools? The State, not parents speeding up to the school gates in red Ferraris and not Protestants in wide-brimmed, black hats.

The State created the schools. No-one else is to blame that we have State schools that have fees — “private State-aided schools”, as the Department of Education’s Fee Charging Schools: Analysis of Fee Income report puts it.

The Government might push the pupil/teacher ratio in these schools still higher in the next budget. Their pupil/teacher ratio is already four higher than that in schools which don’t charge fees. But the cut can still be passed off as a killer blow in the class war to some elements in Labour and their media cronies. Which means it is relatively easy to pick money off the schools. In fact, McCarthy recommended in 2009 that their pupil/teacher ratios should go a full 10 kids higher than that which obtains in free schools.