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State school heads fear Labour’s plans to introduce a 20% VAT tax on private school fees will lead to larger class sizes. I They said.
Pepe Dirascio, president of the Association of School and College Leaders, the largest union of state secondary school heads, said increasing class sizes could be one of the “unintended consequences” of Labour’s flagship policy.
The union, which also represents some private school leaders, is calling for further research into the impact of proposed private school tax reform before it is implemented.
The Government’s intervention comes after Labour’s shadow justice secretary, Emily Thornberry, said yesterday that the impact of the policy was that “it would be OK if class sizes had to be increased in the short term”.
This morning, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson both sought to put an end to the row and said Thornberry’s comments were wrong.
But now, DiRascio made it clear he was speaking for public school officials, saying principals were concerned about the policy’s impact on class sizes.
“We have called for more research to be done on the impact of the policy but we are yet to see evidence of what is happening as a result of the implementation of the policy,” he said. I“Careful consideration will be needed before implementation.”
The union represents more than 25,000 school principals and elementary school principals in several states.
DiRascio said financial pressures at schools have caused class sizes to “grow” over the past decade, and principals will be “making decisions about not only where we can reduce size, but also where we can increase size.”
“Everyone is worried about the impact of not having enough funding to do the work they want to do, and in that context they are having to make difficult decisions, and one of those decisions may be about class size,” he said.
Asked whether party members were concerned that increasing class sizes might be one of the unintended consequences of Labour’s VAT policy, he said: “Absolutely.”
If elected, Labour plans to introduce a 20% VAT increase on private school fees “as soon as possible”, Mr Starmer said, raising an estimated £1.6bn of extra funding for state school pupils.
But critics warn the policy could leave some parents unable to pay tuition fees, leading to an exodus of students from private schools and putting further pressure on already strained public schools.
Asked about Mr Thornberry’s comments, Mr Phillipson told Times Radio this morning: “Sadly I don’t think that was correct.”
“In fact, public schools across the board are seeing fewer students in classrooms due to declining birth rates, meaning fewer young people are attending school.
“So, in fact, we will soon be in a situation where schools are being consolidated and closed due to falling pupil numbers – as we are already seeing in places like London.”
But when asked whether falling birth rates mean smaller class sizes, Dirascio replied: I“At this point, we have not heard anything like that from our members.
“I think she’s right in that birth rates are falling, but birth rates vary widely by region, so some schools that have high enrollment rates are over capacity, and some rural schools probably have much smaller class sizes and are struggling with budgets right now.”
But the Labour leader said it was “wrong” for Mr Thornberry to claim his party’s private school tax reforms would mean bigger class sizes in state schools.
Much of the debate over Labour’s policies has centred on how many pupils will move from private to state schools because their parents can no longer afford the fees. This is an important issue, because if large numbers of former fee-paying pupils move out, the cost of educating them in state schools will eat into the £1.6 billion that Labour had said it would raise through tax increases.
This morning, Mr Phillipson cited a more conservative estimate from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and said: “Our policies will result in a net gain of between £1.3 billion and £1.5 billion.” Mr Starmer said the VAT on private school fees would be enough to pay for Labour’s childcare policies and hire 6,500 new teachers.
last week, I It has emerged that claims that the policy would lead to 224,000 private school pupils leaving school have been denied by the consultants who carried out the research on which it was based.
They said the figure was “too high” and based on survey results that were “statistically not representative.”
The IFS also expressed concern over suggestions that Labour’s tax increases would cause 42% of pupils to drop out of private school, describing it as “hard to believe”.
Luke Sibieta, a researcher at a respected think tank who has studied the impact of the policy, said available evidence suggested private school numbers could fall by up to 7%, or 40,000 students.
The Labour Party has been contacted for a response to ASCL’s comments.
The Conservatives criticised Ms Thornberry’s comments, with Education Secretary Gillian Keegan saying: “Labour has admitted that their tax reforms will lead to bigger classes in state schools and penalise children to pay for them.”
She argued that these surveys show that “it is also our children who are affected by Labour’s jealousy politics”.
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