VAT on fees: 'What we're facing is a blanket tax that assumes independent schools are a stereotype'
In an interview with Qasa Alom for BBC Radio 5 Live, ISC chief executive Julie Robinson details concerns about the negative consequences of Labour's VAT policy.
Ms Robinson said: "We don't think this policy is going to achieve what the government says it's setting out to do. There are various reports presenting a range of estimates on how much funding the policy will raise and they don't support the government's estimate.
"The most favourable report, from the IFS [Institute for Fiscal Studies], says the evidence is thin and long-term impacts are uncertain. The amount of direct revenue it's going to raise for state schools - if any - is very, very uncertain, and at the same time it's going to cause huge disruption for thousands of families and children, especially those in low-fee faith schools, specialist arts education, single-sex schools, or those who need special needs support.
"The issue here is that those children who go to independent schools are not a cost to the state at the moment, so if you outprice them they're going to become a cost to the taxpayer.
"At the moment, independent schools are providing greater capacity and specialism across education. We shouldn't be pitching types of schools against each other - we're all in it to support children's education and allow parents to have the broadest choice possible.
"What we're facing is a blanket tax that assumes independent schools are a stereotype, but the majority of independent schools are just small schools fulfilling a purpose so that they can help educate children across our country the way they need to be educated.
"We're already seeing children moving out of independent schools - four times as many children as the government had predicted would move out - and we know that the amount of money that's going to be raised by this policy is a fraction of what state schools need; it's less than two per cent of the education budget per year.
"What state schools really need is an injection of cash that comes from outside education, and we should be working together to ensure that all kinds of schools are providing all kinds of education for the nation's children."