When we think about consumption we tend to think about shops. That’s fair enough. But we consume much more than what’s on the high street. What we buy is status and advantage. And one of the most important things many consume for status and advantage is education. The purchase of education plays a duel role – if you go to Eton or any public school and then Oxbridge or a top university you are buying status but also the virtual guarantee of future consuming success. It then becomes self reinforcing; more money allows you to buy your children’s advantage.
Education is becoming a position good – valued because of the advantage it gives us over others. This is not just a bout access to private education but state schools are now being refashioned to offer parents choice through trust and faith schools and academies. But advantage is still gained by the rich, the powerful and the well informed. If there is advantage to be had then someone with the skills and resources will take it. Its human nature. That’s okay on the high street – but shouldn’t everyone have an equal chance to make the most of their lives and not be held back by the brute luck of birth and how rich their parents are or how quick their brain is?
Today those representing independent schools (read fee paying of up to £30,000 oper year) are defending the right of their customers to buy advantage just as a car salesperson would. They get charitable status and the tax breaks that come with it but feel they owe society no responsibility in return. Instead they argue that they provide the business and political leaders of the future for the country and the people should be grateful. It is high time we asked not just whether they should have this tax free status but whether anyone should be allowed to buy such advantage. They suck the life out of the state system and divide the country. We should have a choice, after all we live in a democracy, of when we want to choose!
My first ever reply to a blog
I couldn’t agree more. The intellectual discourse has become so dominated by the language of choice that we forget that choice is almost always exercised more effectively by the privileged than by the poor. And I think many parents feel that if they don’t utilise the maximum ‘bandwith’ of the choice available to them – including going private – they are failing their children. New Labour has been responsible for this.
Interestingly, this dominant frame of reference is increasingly being exported to the developing world. Faced with the shortfall in resources to provide education for all (which has been repeatedly promised in global fora since 1960) international financial institutions, notably the World Bank, are increasingly making the argument that the problem is not one of resources but efficient management. The solution? Introduce ‘choice’ and competition between schools. This, despite the fact that many low-income countries simply cannot mobilise enough funds to meet needs, and donors have failed to commit aid, so that children are taught under trees by unqualified professionals. A problem of competent management? I don’t think so.
Is that the same ‘competent management’ that brought us the financial crisis?
” They suck the life out of the state system and divide the country”
This just isn’t true. The reason private education flourishes in the UK is that the state system is seen as inherently unreliable. It is unreliable because teachers are paid lousy wages in comparison with other members of society, and, I would suggest, because of an “all must have prizes”, dumbing-down mentality. This is not the same in all countries by any means. My teaching friends here in Switzerland earn as much as I do and still have the holidays etc etc that go with the job. Great employment conditions attract top talent and this gives you a better education system.
You can’t blame people for wanting the best for their children. Their taxes should already be providing it. This is the same argument as for private health. Better pay, better talent and you could get rid of targets, league tables and a host of managers. You wouldn’t need them.
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
Of course there is no formula for success except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings.