http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8506598.stm

This is not going to be popular.

From a childless person, my kneejerk reaction is.. tough! You had children and they cost, get use to it.

Have to agree – if you can’t afford them don’t have them

Personally I think you should be taxed EXTRA for each child – say 2% / child on basic tax to cover the extra NHS, Schools, etc etc

I have to agree. If you have children and you want to work, you have to pay for somebody to look after them. These people are doing the parents job, while the parents are unable to look after the child, why shouldn't they get a decent wage as well?

If both parents have gone back to work, it must mean that the jobs are paying enough to warrant the childcare payments...

I would agree, while there are crazy situations where single parents are actually handing over all their after tax income to child care there will be occasions where it is simply better to stay at home with the kids and not work. This will make that argument easier.

You could always consider that the tax etc you pay for schools etc is actually paying back what it cost to send yourself to school. Someone else paid that for you when you were a child.

I've worked out that it'd be cheaper to send my kid to private school than nursary.
I could buy a new kitchen & bathroom in what I'm paying a year in nursary fees (& my little one goes to the cheapest one in the area)

Actaully I did go to a Public School as my parents worked overseas so I did not costs the tax payer a penny in my education. I did howver attend uni in the final years of when grants were available but I think I have paid that back 10 fold by now

Virtually all the politicians who voted for tuition fees benefited from free university education and grants, though some may have had a zero support component because of family income, but they all benefited. Hypocrites.

Agree

Personally for University education I think everyone who goes should get a grant
(how many people go is a different issue)

Then I think that anyone who does go should have 1 – 2% added to the TOP rate of tax to help pay for it

Reason: lets anyone go to uni irrespective of financial background and they leave without the need to have crippling debts. If they take a low paid / vocational job then they don’t have to pay anything back ( as they are earning under the high tax threshold. If they get a high paid job then the extra cost to them is marginal and its something they signed up to when the decided to go to uni

Also assuming you set the % increase right it becomes self funding after a number of years

Actually too many people go to university. It is a middle class aspiration. There simply are not enough jobs that need degree level candidates. All it does is load up students with debt and with useless degrees. These are the same people who we expect to buy our over priced homes when we retire and also pay for our pensions. Some how this just does not add up.

I have to say if I had had to “pay” for my Uni course e.g. Student loans i would have had serious thoughts about going but as stated I was luck to be in the last years of grants

If any of my Nieces / Nephews wanted to go then unless they were studying something that NEEDED it (Engineering, Medicine, one of the Professions) then I would not recommend it – get a job and do a degree via the Open University.

You will earn money, end up (after a bit longer time) with a degree that many employers value and be able to show work experience and no large debts

Of course what you miss out on is the fun part of a university life

Hmmmmmmmmmm now that would be a shame

I agree with Amnesia.

When I left college, I couldn't get a grant, so it was either get a student loan or go out and get a job. 6 years later, I was sorting out the havoc the graduate intake had made on projects! Then I got a job as a guest lecturer at a Uni. They were horrified, once I got the job and then they looked at my credentials and I'd never been to Uni

The UK's biggest problem is people taking "easy" degrees, that have nothing to do with their chosen career. Here, in Germany, there are still apprenticeships for most jobs and you need a "Meisterbrief" (Master's Certificate) in your chosen field, before you can open a company in that field. If your father dies and leaves you a business, but you haven't trained for that business, you need to employ a Meister until you get yourself certified!

That means that people actually study for the subject area they want to work in when they leave Uni, which means that when they get a job in their field, at least they have a clue about what they are doing.

Unlike the graduate I got lumbered with in the UK. Nice guy, but he had studied geography, wanted to work in advertising, but graduates fresh out of Uni aren't well paid in advertising, so he go a place on a IT graduate placement programme, but couldn't program to save his life! If he wanted to work in advertising, why a) didn't he study advertising? b) get a graduate placement with an agency, even if he wouldn't be as well paid for the first couple of years? c) choose computer programming, when he didn't know his IO from his IP?

I totally agree I have two degree's and other than getting my first job I've never used any of them. It just proves you can learn nothing more. IMHO.

I agree with that strategy. Especially when you have ministers trying to get people to get a pension before a mortgage.