Sir, – Tom Cooper (October 17th) suggests that State subsidies enable private schools to provide facilities that State schools cannot afford. This idea complicates and, I believe, distorts the reality. State subsidies go to all schools and enable them to function with a barely adequate level of facilities. (Many supposedly free schools ask parents to "volunteer" the cost of specific extras.)
Fee-charging schools use the income from fees to provide the extra facilities (including additional teachers) that raise standards and maximise their pupils’ advantages. The parents contribute through taxation to the subsidies to all schools. They should not be penalised for seeking higher standards for their children by paying extra.
The unfairness of the system should be addressed by increasing the State’s general subsidies to education, and not by discriminating against fee-paying schools. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL DRURY,
Avenue Louise,
Brussels,
Belgium.