Paying for others’ education
From Andrew Currie
Sir: In his article on David Cameron’s approach to education (‘Why did he do it?’, 14 January) Ross Clark moans about having to pay twice for his children’s education once privately and once through his taxes. I could understand this if parents with children of school age paid a special education tax, but they don’t. State education is funded through general taxation, which means that people like me, for example, who have no children pay just as much as those who do — probably rather more, considering the amount of help the state, understandably, gives to parents. Since a decent education system has social benefits far beyond the immediate users’, it seems reasonable that society should chip in to pay for it (and have the right to criticise it when it doesn’t deliver). I’m more than happy for Ross Clark to educate his children privately, but not at the expense of ducking his responsibilities to the rest of us.
Andrew Currie London SW1
Previous page
