Yes

Matthew Burgess
Deputy Chief Executive of the Independent Schools Council

Independent schools should continue to be regarded as charities because they meet the criteria. More than 80 per cent of the 1,271 schools we represent have charitable status. Schools are charities because they have a charitable purpose - to advance education, which has been seen as a charitable purpose since time immemorial. One of the difficulties about the current debate is that people think of relieving poverty as the only charitable purpose. However, there are 13 charitable purposes, including advancing education.

The only thing that has changed is that previously lawyers talked about there being a presumption of public benefit for schools and other charities. Now that presumption has been taken away. But schools never relied on the presumption - they do advance education for the public benefit. Public benefit is straightforward: you need to have a purpose that is of benefit and you have to demonstrate that you are doing it for a public, rather than a private, class of beneficiary.

Independent schools clearly provide a first-class education for their pupils, which is the most direct form of benefit. A lot of our schools will provide benefits, not only to their pupils, but to other children, either through partnerships with other schools or opening up facilities or playing fields and sharing teachers with local schools. Even sponsoring schools overseas will provide clear educational benefits to children.

A lot of our schools are right at the heart of the community - doing things such as opening their facilities and sports grounds and putting on shows at local care homes. The independent sector also provides more intangible benefits. For instance, our schools train teachers, at our expense.

Our schools can also show that when it comes to considering who is eligible for a place at the school, they cater for all potential pupils. The fact that our schools charge fees is an economic reality. They have to recoup their costs and, unlike maintained schools, do not get direct government grants. They charge fees, but if they did not they would go out of business.

One of the damaging things about the debate is that there is a Sword of Damocles hanging over some schools because, if you are a charity, all of the assets - buildings and land - must be dedicated to charity. If the school is deemed by the Charity Commission not to be a charity it must find a charity to take its assets. There is no way out for schools. It often is seen as a debate about tax breaks, but this is not the issue. Once a charity, always a charity, and if the commission is saying it can decide a school is no longer a charity, it has huge repercussions for the schools, their land, buildings and business.

No

Christine Blower
Acting General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers

Many of us were brought up with the idea that a good start in life - a good education - should be available to all and not be dependent on the wealth of the child's parents. It is this argument that sustains the suspicion of independent schools. This suspicion is further fuelled by schools catering exclusively, or almost exclusively, for the children of the rich being able to benefit from a tax system that in effect subsidises schools which maintain they are charities.

No government is going to attempt to outlaw fee-paying schools, not least because the right of parents to have their children taught according to their wishes is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, the Government has gone some way to address concerns in the legislation coming into force in the new year. All charities must justify their existence by proving to the Charity Commission that they make a contribution to the community. In the case of private schools, if they fail to comply, the commission will have the power to suspend trustees, freeze bank accounts and, ultimately, remove the charitable status of the schools.

This is a move that is long overdue and is a logical response to the indefensible position that some schools that charge huge fees should be classified as charities. Independent schools are socially divisive and mostly academically selective.

A society where one group of young people has no comprehension of the lifestyles, attitudes and values of others because, in effect, both groups have been educationally and socially segregated from an early age, is one where cohesion and tolerance are threatened. Encouraging selective independent schools to discharge their public-benefit duty by admitting clever young people whose families are on low incomes will do little to address concerns of social segregation.

A tougher test for private schools to justify their charitable status is needed. Some have developed links within their local community but not far enough - certainly nowhere near enough to ameliorate the impact they have on the pupil intake of state-maintained schools.

Independent schools with charitable trusts should demonstrate how they contribute to the wider public benefit by offering, on a non-selective basis, their provision to the maintained schools in their communities. There are many areas where this could be facilitated, including offering tuition in minority subjects.

Having benefited a great deal from charity over the years, it is now time to see just how charitable private schools themselves will be in the coming years.

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