Taxing private schools won't smash the class ceiling

The removal of the VAT exemption on private schools has been met with a panic about the demise of the sector and the financial impact on parents wanting to privately educate their children. But as Aaron Reeves and Sam Friedman argue, the effects of the policy on private schools as well as to the advantages their graduates enjoy has been next to zero. It’s a mostly sympbolic move on the part of the Labour Government, whose mission of “smashing the class ceiling” needs to focus not just on private schools, but elite university admissions.