Private schools subsidising poor is ‘socialism in action’, says head

PRIVATE schools are “socialism in action”, the head of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference has said.

HMC schools, which include Eton, Harrow and Winchester, allow wealthy parents who can afford school fees to subsidise the education of those from less well-off backgrounds, according to Mike Buchanan.

He pointed to the recent decision taken by Millfield School in Somerset to cut fees by 10 per cent amid concerns that they are no longer affordable to middle classes.

Writing in the Times Education Supplement, Mr Buchanan said some would “scoff ” at the move, on the basis that fees at the boarding school still remain “unreachable” for most people.

“Some will point out that many other less well-known schools have been exercising cost and fee restraint for years without fanfare or publicity,” he wrote.

“Both would be missing the point about a wider dynamic happening in society of which fees in independent

‘Relatively well-off parents are funding the free places [and] the cost of partnerships with the state schools’

schools are just part of the picture.”

Mr Buchanan, who is executive director of HMC, and the headmaster of Ashford School in Kent, said it was “often forgotten” that many private schools serve “ordinary, middle-class communities” where hard-working parents choose to spend some of their money on “buying a different form of education for their children which, they judge, is not available from the state”.

Private schools’ abilities to provide bursaries and fee assistance for children from poor households, as well as sharing facilities and expertise with local state schools, are all made possible from fees.

“[The] activities above are paid for from fees paid to the school by parents. I’ve always thought of this as socialism in action,” Mr Buchanan said.

“This means relatively well-off, feepaying parents are funding the free and assisted places for others, as well as the cost of the partnerships with state schools. They do so willingly in the knowledge that it adds to the breadth of experiences and, hence, the understanding their own children gain.”