Tea at Trianon: U.K. Schools Are Becoming Luxury Products for Foreign Elites

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, March 15, 2025

U.K. Schools Are Becoming Luxury Products for Foreign Elites

From First Things:

The U.K. is facing a serious education crisis. In February, the Labour government scrapped the Latin Excellence Programme, a scheme that funded Latin education in state schools, leaving some students without a teacher just months before their GCSEs (the exams all U.K. students take at age sixteen). There was outcry on both sides of the political aisle. Apart from the practical advantages of Latin (it is an excellent basis for learning other European languages and is useful for anyone in medical or scientific fields), it was the common European language of scholarship and learning for centuries. Labour have sent a loud and clear message to those children in the state education system: This linguistic and cultural heritage is not for you. It is only for those who have the means to pay.
Other Labour policies are ensuring that fewer and fewer middle-class families have the means to choose a better education for their children, regardless of their willingness to make financial sacrifices. Certain British schools (Eton, Harrow, Winchester, and the like) are globally recognized and have long been eye-wateringly expensive, derided by many on the left as bastions of privilege. But the reality is that most privately educated students in the U.K. attend solid mid-tier schools, which offer a structured, well-rounded education rooted in intellectual inquiry, discipline, and their cultural heritage. Sending children to these institutions is an expense that many socially mobile and aspiring parents, with careful planning and some financial sacrifices, have been able to manage. But as the Labour party promised in its campaign, 20 percent VAT was added to the education and boarding fees charged by private schools from January onward. Additionally, starting in April, all private schools will lose their charitable status, which previously provided substantial tax breaks. This move effectively prices out many of the middle-class British families that these institutions once served, meaning that schools must seek out wealthy international students who can afford full board and tuition.

The result: The British middle-class is being pushed out of its own institutions, and private schools are morphing into luxury services for foreign elites. Many of the bigger-name schools have successfully expanded abroad. Dulwich, Harrow, and others have satellite campuses in China, the Middle East, and beyond. The demand from international clients is so high that consultants in Russia and China charge exorbitant fees to match children with the right U.K. schools and prepare them for admissions tests. But it now looks like these international elites will become the core beneficiaries of English schooling. This undermines both social mobility and the country’s own stake in its education system.

I recently spent some time as a teacher at an independent school in England and observed first-hand the impact of this (then still forthcoming) VAT policy. Many of my best students were local, the children of doctors, dentists, and small business owners, whose families made various financial sacrifices, or pooled together with grandparents, to send two or three of their children to the school. With the news of the VAT increase, many of these families were reconsidering, calculating whether they could take on the rising fees or whether they should switch to state schools. (Read more.)