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johnny9fingersWhen we look at the financial apartheid of English education we are made aware of certain structural problems. The first is that, because of the unique conditions of their environment, the list of the oldest schools in continual operation in the whole world is dominated by English establishments:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_schools
Of the 216 schools on that list, founded before the C17th, 139 of them by my count are English, with a few Scots, Welsh, and Irish establishments on top of the English ones. The King’s School, Canterbury dates to 597 CE. And the first seven places on that list go to English establishments.
Now all of these schools were founded at least three centuries before any idea of general education for everyone was received wisdom, and they all charged some sort of fees from foundation. There are very few state schools on that list. Beverley Grammar and the King’s School, Stratford-upon-Avon are the obvious ones.
In England, approximately 7% of the population attend private schools, and a disproportionate number of people in positions of power, influence, and wealth attended one of the more prestigious private schools. The Clarendon Schools, alongside the Catholic public schools and the relative newcomers of the Victorian expansion, and that expansion re-establishing some of the ancient schools like Sherborne and KS Canterbury, have the whole of the establishment sewn up.
Now that’s because the wealthy always have the establishment sewn up. In other nations it becomes who you are related to, or how much cash you have. Either are completely normal routes into the establishment. Some nations and cultures added school and university as qualifications to participate in the establishment, but none as thoroughly as the English. Send a middle-class boy to Eton at the turn of the 19th century and you might just get Beau Brummell; and in the C20th you might get George Orwell.
Private education in the UK is a generator of revenue internationally. Few Brits can afford £39K+ extras a year for an Eton education. It costs more than the average wage to educate a child privately. And that’s about half the per capita cost of banging up criminals in our state prisons. (But then again only 0.13% of the population are banged up in gaol.)
I guess private schools will have to be nationalised, but I can’t see how any government could legitimately sequester the school’s asserts. Eton had plans in the ‘60’s to relocate to France. Many schools now have international associates. International holding of charitable assets is allowed. I’d guess a lot of work for the lawyers, but I think most of the assets of these schools can be protected if they are forced abroad.
The story of Catholic education in England may give us clues. St Omer’s College and Douai educated English Catholics in the Lowlands, and the schools only relocated back to England after the French Revolution. Eton, Winchester, Harrow etc all have escape routes planned in the ‘60’s. Maybe those plans are in need of updating.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_schools
Of the 216 schools on that list, founded before the C17th, 139 of them by my count are English, with a few Scots, Welsh, and Irish establishments on top of the English ones. The King’s School, Canterbury dates to 597 CE. And the first seven places on that list go to English establishments.
Now all of these schools were founded at least three centuries before any idea of general education for everyone was received wisdom, and they all charged some sort of fees from foundation. There are very few state schools on that list. Beverley Grammar and the King’s School, Stratford-upon-Avon are the obvious ones.
In England, approximately 7% of the population attend private schools, and a disproportionate number of people in positions of power, influence, and wealth attended one of the more prestigious private schools. The Clarendon Schools, alongside the Catholic public schools and the relative newcomers of the Victorian expansion, and that expansion re-establishing some of the ancient schools like Sherborne and KS Canterbury, have the whole of the establishment sewn up.
Now that’s because the wealthy always have the establishment sewn up. In other nations it becomes who you are related to, or how much cash you have. Either are completely normal routes into the establishment. Some nations and cultures added school and university as qualifications to participate in the establishment, but none as thoroughly as the English. Send a middle-class boy to Eton at the turn of the 19th century and you might just get Beau Brummell; and in the C20th you might get George Orwell.
Private education in the UK is a generator of revenue internationally. Few Brits can afford £39K+ extras a year for an Eton education. It costs more than the average wage to educate a child privately. And that’s about half the per capita cost of banging up criminals in our state prisons. (But then again only 0.13% of the population are banged up in gaol.)
I guess private schools will have to be nationalised, but I can’t see how any government could legitimately sequester the school’s asserts. Eton had plans in the ‘60’s to relocate to France. Many schools now have international associates. International holding of charitable assets is allowed. I’d guess a lot of work for the lawyers, but I think most of the assets of these schools can be protected if they are forced abroad.
The story of Catholic education in England may give us clues. St Omer’s College and Douai educated English Catholics in the Lowlands, and the schools only relocated back to England after the French Revolution. Eton, Winchester, Harrow etc all have escape routes planned in the ‘60’s. Maybe those plans are in need of updating.
