Child Day Off From School. Am I Wrong?

[Steve H]

RTB said:

sc0tt said:

I'm being a bit thick here. Why don't you just say the kid is ill?

Because they'll blab at school to someone..... without a doubt. It's the same reason you can't get them to lie about their age to get cheaper entry into places Children (at least mine) will swear blind that it wasn't them that broke the window (even though you saw them do it) but will become paragons of truth and virtue if it's going to cost dad money, get him in trouble or make him look like a tit.

Or it's because certain parents wouldn't lower themselves to lying about such matters. It's all about sticking to their very high principles (so long as they can also save some cash on their trip to Disney).

[DonkeyApple]

The Moose said:

What is it, on average you are only a net contributor if your household earns around 40k? Everyone else leaches off the system.

It's a much higher figure than that. You've got to basically be in the 45% bracket and be so for a significant period to be able to claim to be a net contributor in your lifetime.

[DonkeyApple]

Nanook said:

Your kid taking the day off school because you can't be bothered driving them there, bad.

Your kid taking the day off school to go meet an astronaut, see some exhibits, ask some questions. Good. In my opinion.

And I'm not sure people would disagree. If the day trip is clearly educational and done at a non critical educational time then there is no issue. And lo and behold, the State schools in our area are quite happy to permit this. They will even permit people to miss the last day of term so as to save on flight costs.

So if State schools in one area allow this and yet seemingly State schools in other areas do not then what is causing the difference?

[ATG]

The Moose said:

ATG said:

some would say we even collectively subsidise private education through tax exemptions.

They would be wrong!

Imagine if all people educated through the private education system up to 18 were in fact in state education. The country couldn't educate that number of kids!

And those people don't get any reduction in taxes for doing that (in the same way I still paid the same amount of tax even though I had a private GP) and pay for the services anyway.

What is it, on average you are only a net contributor if your household earns around 40k? Everyone else leaches off the system.

None of that had anything to do with tax exemptions. Whether one judges that to be a subsidy depends if you think no taxes is the norm or vat and corp tax is the norm.