From assisted places to free schools: subsidizing private schools for the Northern English middle classes

Sol Gamsu

doi:10.1080/01425692.2020.1833180

Abstract

This paper examines how the English educational state has consistently acted to support private schooling in areas where fee-paying schools would be otherwise financially unviable. Educational data on private school participation since the 2008 financial crisis reveals the stark regional divides between London and the South-East of England and the rest of the country. This analysis of contemporary trends is framed within a historical understanding of the spatial dualism of the English middle class in relation to education. The paper traces the policy lineages of the spatial logic of state subsidies for elite models of schooling in northern England, noting the continuity between Direct Grant grammar schools, the Assisted Places scheme and the recent conversion of private schools into state-funded academy or free schools. A review of applications from private schools to become free schools highlights, how differentiated local class structures affect the viability of elite education without state support.

Highlights

In the context of rising global inequality and political ruptures, the last decade has seen renewed interest in sociological analyses of elite education (Maxwell and Aggleton 2015a; Van Zanten, Ball, and Darchy-Koechlin 2015)
This paper examines the geography of private school participation in England since the 2008 financial crisis as a means of exploring how the resilience of private schooling relates to regional inequality and uneven geography of the English middle class
This paper has revealed a distinct geography of private school provision, which reflects an unequal distribution of economic wealth and creates a distinctive geography of social reproduction and education

Summary

Introduction

In the context of rising global inequality and political ruptures, the last decade has seen renewed interest in sociological analyses of elite education (Maxwell and Aggleton 2015a; Van Zanten, Ball, and Darchy-Koechlin 2015). This paper examines the geography of private school participation in England since the 2008 financial crisis as a means of exploring how the resilience of private schooling relates to regional inequality and uneven geography of the English middle class It explores the reappearance of state support for forms of elite education in areas where. I draw on the work of economic historian Bill Rubinstein (1986, 1977b) to argue that the downward trend in private school participation in the North of England since the crisis and the stability and growth of these schools in London and the South-East represents a long-term historical continuity These historical arguments will be explored below in the first section of the literature review. I describe in greater detail the history of earlier education policies which have funded fee-paying selective schools offering access to middle-class families who otherwise could not afford this education

Literature review

Findings

Conclusion