I am in favour of independent schools being required to demonstrate public benefit in return for their charitable status - for example, through sharing with state schools their facilities and specialist teaching expertise in shortage subjects.
What must be avoided at all costs is the development of independent school bursaries which would remove from the state sector those able pupils and supportive parents upon whom they depend. It would be a sad irony if charitable status reforms, designed to make arrangements fairer, worked to the further benefit of independent schools at the expense of the state sector.
Mark Hewlett, Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
