State versus private

''Children from poorer backgrounds should receive up to £10,000 in credit to allow them to go to independent schools, a think tank has suggested.'' This is the headline that greeted me recently as I perused the BBC website. What a load of rubbish!

The article goes on to to say ''that despite a major increase in funding for education over the past decade, many children were failed by their local schools.''. What evidence is there to suggest that children who fail to take advantage of what state education has to offer would have a different experience in private education?

Given that private education education does not, in the main, add more value to a pupil's educational progress than a state school, (refer to research work undertaken by Lindsay Paterson a few years ago) is there not an overwhelming case for parents of private school pupils to be alerted to this? Imagine the savings that those families could make, particulary in such difficult times as these!