# How much state funding do private schools get? Any?



## stat (May 24, 2011)

Hi

Does anyone know (a) if private schools receive state funding and (b) if they do receive state funding how that funding is calculated (e.g. a certain amount per student, etc)?

Question came up at the weekend in a wildly rambling conversation about whether the private sector is more efficient than the public sector, which came from a conversation about why private sector is seen as wealth-creating and good while public sector is wealth-spending and bad.

cheers
stat


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## Oswaldtwistle (May 24, 2011)

I don't think they get any. They do get tax breaks in the form of charity status though.


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## stat (May 24, 2011)

/The charity status is dependent on them being for public benefit, which is why they provide some scholarships and share facilities sometimes/

Also useful if anyone can share charts or data showing average cost of state school education with average costs of private school education.

cheers


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## ericjarvis (May 24, 2011)

They get an indirect subsidy in that they don't pay towards the training of teachers.


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## stat (May 24, 2011)

Thanks for the replies so far.

More information:
ToryGraph estimated private schools' tax breaks (through charitable status) at £100million in 2008, approx £225 per student: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1581382/Funding-threat-to-private-schools.html
This report says the cost of educating a child by the state in 2007 was approx 58% that of educating by a private school: http://www.teachingtimes.com/articles/school-funding-level.htm.  It says the "base per pupil amount" for secondary schools in 2004-5 was £2,880 and for primary schools £2,249.


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## weltweit (May 25, 2011)

I don't know exactly how it works but, as already mentioned, they get to operate as charities which gives them some tax advantages.


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## Streathamite (May 25, 2011)

MASSIVE tax advantages, more like!


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## belboid (May 25, 2011)

£225 per child each year to private schools, or just under 2.5% of their average annual turnover, apparently. 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jun/18/david-miliband-private-school-subsidy


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## weltweit (May 25, 2011)

ericjarvis said:


> They get an indirect subsidy in that they don't pay towards the training of teachers.


 
Surely as tax paying individuals they pay as much as anyone else.


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## Idris2002 (May 25, 2011)

In Ireland they get the same funding as other schools, because Ireland is a weird dysfunctional hole.


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## Bahnhof Strasse (May 25, 2011)

Anyone know how much private school save the state by keeping kids out of state education?


Of course private schools can be more efficient than state, they get to pick & choose their kids, declining more demanding children. Their teachers also need no qualifications of any kind, though often at the better schools many have PHDs at our expense.


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