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Middle-class parents will be forced to pay higher private school fees to subsidise places for poor children after a landmark ruling today, headteachers warned.
Independent schools must prove that they operate for "the public benefit" to justify their charitable status and the lucrative tax breaks that accompany it.
But the Charity Commission warned that two of the first five independent schools it has investigated failed to comply with the new law and will be stripped of their charitable status unless they provide more bursaries within 12 months.
Leading headteachers accused the Commission of mounting a "politically driven" attack on private education and warned that fees will inevitably rise to fund subsidised places.
The watchdog's focus on bursaries is too narrow, according to Andrew Grant, chairman of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses Conference of 250 schools, including Eton, Harrow and Westminster.
Mr Grant told the Standard the ruling made life "extremely difficult" for smaller schools.
"The Charity Commission has drawn the public benefit test with a self-defeating narrowness, almost as if they were setting out to give themselves the opportunity of making life as difficult as possible for independent schools," said Mr Grant, head of St Albans School.
"There is, it seems to me, a good deal of bureaucracy and number of politically driven elements to this."
Martin Stephen, High Master of St Paul's School in Barnes, said the commission's ruling could threaten the survival of some schools.
"es that are needed," she said.
Reader views (5)
If State Schools were uniformly good, all but the very best private schools would go bust as no Middle Class parents would use them - most students who go to them get the exam grades you would expect to be the norm nationwide rather than something exceptional.
- Roz, France, 15/07/2009 14:49
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How much have the "middle classes" got ?
- Grim Reaper, Hell, 15/07/2009 13:20
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Local governments are already seeing state schools come under strain as private education becomes less affordable. So the the so-called Charity Commission, better described in this context as NuLab's Class-Envy Gestapo, will ultimately hurt all children by attacking the private schools. Of course, they won't mind that, as long as they can hurt the middle class.
- Andrew, London, 15/07/2009 12:55
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You should not tax education in the first place.
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 14/07/2009 17:01
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If a Public school was originally founded and endowed with Land to educate the poor of the Parish to enter the Church it is difficult to see how educating the children of the richest parents to obtain entrance to the best Universities can be described as charitable work. As David Cameron is fond of reminding us it would be charitable for the Public Schools now to educate those children from the Broken Society and would help to fix it. I'm sure that Iain Duncan-Smith would be in favour, at least until the Election is won and Tory Policies can return to normal.
- F Frinton, Ealing England, 14/07/2009 13:10
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