Parents, teachers and students from Christian schools gathered on the Royal Courts of Justice because the Court of Appeal hears a legal challenge to Labour’s controversial imposition of VAT on private school fees.
The policy has been cited because the direct cause for the closure of quite a few private schools, including Christian schools. The policy has particularly affected smaller schools which try to provide a personal education to those with limited budgets.
One school that closed down following the policy was a cathedral choir school with an 850-year history. Exeter Cathedral School didn’t name the VAT policy as the rationale for its closure, but did cite “unavoidable financial pressures.” Other Christian schools forced to shut have pointed to the VAT charge, though, including Kilgraston, Scotland’s only independent Catholic school for ladies.
An appeal against the tax policy is being brought headteachers and families from Christian schools everywhere in the country. They are being supported by the Christian Legal Centre (CLC) which estimates that greater than 100 private schools have been forced to shut, impacting 17,000 students.
The appeal claims that the tax has had a disproportionate impact on low-cost Christian schools attempting to serve deprived communities, in addition to families who want their children to be educated according to their faith, and youngsters with SEND (Special Educational Needs).
One parent, Stephen White, spoke of the impact of the tax: “This policy forces families like mine into an unattainable alternative. We live just so we will send our kids to a college shaped by our faith.
“Labour has created a caricature of rich private schools, that’s not our reality. We are odd, hardworking families and this tax threatens to remove our kids’s education overnight.”
Andrea Williams, CLC chief executive, said, “This is one other example of ideological overreach by this Labour government.
“Education will not be the only responsibility of the state, nor should the state interfere within the rightful role of families.
“By imposing a direct tax on education, something no UK or Western government has ever done, the federal government is deliberately narrowing parental alternative and forcing families into decisions they’d not otherwise make.”
Williams further accused Labour of what amounted to an “ideological” attack on freedom of alternative.
“This case is about greater than tax,” she said.
“It is about whether the state ought to be allowed to crowd out family responsibility and conscience, creating conditions wherein parents effectively don’t have any alternative but to undergo a single, state-approved model of education.
“It is in regards to the fundamental freedom of fogeys to teach their children in accordance with their faith and deeply held beliefs.”
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