Sarah D

What an ill-conceived and contemptible comment. The fact that a choice may not be available to everyone doesn't mean that it's not a choice for those who can afford it. You can't deny the nature of a choice as such just because it's not universally available. The same fact also doesn't mean that whose who can afford that choice should be denied it. As I've told you before, how people choose to spend their taxed income is their business, not yours or the state's, and how dare you presume otherwise? Moreover, if someone spends their own money on something that saves the state money, then obviously that expenditure should not be taxed again. We should incentivise independence to limit the burden on the state, rather than encouraging state dependence by taxing merit goods. As for 'privilege', the privilege you have in mind comes from financial means. If you were to abolish private education, yes you'd deny families the choice whether to send their children to state or private school, but you'd also put a great deal of money back in the pockets of people who are, on the whole, relatively well-off by shifting the burden of educating their children to the state, funded by taxpayers who may be substantially less well-off. What a regressive outcome. Those families would then be able to afford to buy larger homes, save more effectively for retirement, buy other goods and services that they otherwise couldn't afford and so on. They'd still have all the advantages of their position in life and would still be just as 'privileged'. If you're really concerned about breaking privilege, you'd have achieved absolutely nothing. How pathetic. Meanwhile, as I have also previously explained on this platform, every child who receives an education is privileged, regardless of who pays. There was a time when education was only available to those who could afford private tuition. Now every child has the opportunity to learn at a level that would have astonished people living only a couple of hundred years ago. Access to the state education system is an enormous privilege for all those who use it. Your comments demonstrate that you take it entirely for granted. How utterly contemptible.

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