From Alistair B. Cook, OBE Sir: Middle-class parents in other
Western European countries may well be pleased that the state provides a successful educa- tion for their children for which they pay out of their taxes, as Rachel Johnson reminds us. In many places, however, they will be less pleased by other elements of public services, particularly if they are among those who face a massive state-pensions bill with no certainty of adequate security in retirement.
Is it so very 'primitive' to try to open up independent schools here to as many par- ents as possible, particularly since it is con- ceded that the only alternative — the aboli- tion of these schools — is impractical? The middle classes would have served their self- interest most effectively by calling for a full voucher system which would enable them to use their tax payments in either sector. That would put real pressure on state schools as a whole to come up to the stan- dards they demand. In the absence of a sus- tained middle-class campaign for vouchers, all the political parties flatly refuse to con- template the introduction of such a system because of the profound and (from the nar- row Treasury point of view) costly changes which it would involve.
Families who cannot afford the cost clam- our for places at independent schools. Opin- ion polls conducted by MORI consistently show that around half of all parents — con- siderably more than vote for the winning party at an election — would send their chil- dren to schools belonging to the Indepen- dent Schools Council (ISC) if they had the means to pay the fees. Such parents deserve financial assistance here and now from the state on a means-tested basis. It is pointless to wait for radical upheaval to bring down what Rachel Johnson is pleased to describe as education's Berlin Wall. Many have already penetrated it, thanks to scholarships and bursaries provided by ISC schools them- selves. The only politically feasible way of weakening it further is through a properly funded scheme that will permit the wider access that ISC schools themselves want.
Alistair B. Cooke
General secretary, Independent Schools Council, London SW1
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