Once again, the critics of the Assisted Places Scheme for Independent Schools have conned the press (even The TES, which should know better) into repeating the old myth that the scheme “costs the Government” Pounds 94,000,000 “which could be better spent. . . etc. etc”.
The huge assumption made by the critics is, I suppose, that if parents did not get this Government assistance then they would be paying full fees instead. This is, of course, absolute nonsense. If parents did not get help, they would send their children to maintained schools where they would have to be educated at a cost to the Government of - at a wild guess - about Pounds 94,000, 000 a year.
If this is the outcome that the scheme’s critics want, then they should be brave enough to say so, and not hide behind spurious economics.
G F DUNKIN
Headmaster
The Hulme Grammer School
Oldham, Lancashire.
