Paying for education
Sir: May I follow up Mr Colin Welch's most interesting proposal for the NHS (6 November) by suggesting that a similar solution might be applied to education. Schools would be paid by parents, not by the State, and parents helped by the State in proportion to their means. In education the problem seems more complex, and I only wish now to propose the idea to those competent to work it out. In medicine, one is dealing with people from different social classes who have similar physical needs. In education, needs vary more with social class. This itself is a matter that needs studying.
However, applying this solution would lead to greater parental choice and would make possible a gradual 'privatising' (schools could be transferred to educational trusts), thus avoiding the dangers inherent in education being almost a State monopo- ly. And to make fee-paying schools the norm is a decisive answer to those who, for equality, wish to abolish them.
Revd M. C. Crowdy
The Travellers' Club, Pall Mall, London SW I
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