[rmvt]

what i've seen with the nhs is doctors avoiding care/exams in order to save ££ (i suspect as guidance from above). i've heard these takes on public schools but they failed to explain what's actually bad about them. could you provide more detail?

as for the sw contract industry, the way i see it more like closing a loophole where contractors were essentially working as permanent employees but ended up paying less taxes. outside ir35 contracts are a thing and the fact that there's less of those is probably an indicator that they were indeed used as a loophole.

tax hikes might help, it just depends on whom.

[KaiserPro]

> what I've seen with the nhs is doctors avoiding care/exams in order to save ££

This happens in all healthcare. Depending on the insurance, and the incentives you either get loads of pointless investigations, or none.

There are three main problems with the NHS:

1) culture

2) no social care, meaning the the NHS is a medium stay care home

3) not enough staff (see 1)

(source, half of my friends are medical in one sort of another.)

For schools, objectively English schools are performing better than ever. https://wisevoter.com/country-rankings/education-rankings-by... (trying to find the specific link to the percentage improvement is hard)

However, without support this isn't going to last.

Private schools have the veneer of betterness because they are rich and have massive selection bias. For places like west sussex, there are an unusually high number of _shit_ private schools (the key is value added in the league tables)

[sdfghswe]

> i've heard these takes on public schools but they failed to explain what's actually bad about them. could you provide more detail?

I'm also very interested to hear about this.

[ilikerashers]

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/20/private-sc...

Your kids likely to do better in a private school. Hard to say all public schools are bad, there are just fewer good ones and it depends where you live. It's like you either play a public/grammar school lottery or pay your dues.

[sdfghswe]

Thanks for the link, but

A) from that link it's not possible to tell if there's causality between those two, and

B) it doesn't tell me what exactly is "bad" about the "bad schools", which is what I wanted to know.

[sw104]

Bad schools are generally in bad areas.

A few years ago, primary age students going into high school from my home village were going to be split between two secondary (or high) schools, as not every student could be accounted for in the closer school.

The closer school was a decent high school in an affluent town across from my village. Decent teachers, grades, no drama.

The other was a poorer high school in a rough and downtrodden town. The town has higher crime, including crime which reaches students (anti-social/troubled kids, more bullying, even cases of knives being brought into school).

This is a classic pattern in the UK. Well off/decent towns within spitting distance of formerly well-off towns which used to be industrially important and are now in stagnation, with poor job prospects, crime, anti-social behaviour, poor maintenance, nothing to do, and nothing to help.

Worse average grades, worse teachers (due to high turnover from teachers being pushed out by bullying), more potential to get in trouble, and worse life potential.

Not sure how this should be worded to not be construed in a funny way, but the kids from my village would have been the only white kids in the school in the rougher town, so you can imagine how that may amplify the effect the school would have on them.

Unsurprisingly, parents protested and many sold up and moved in order to avoid the "bad school" in question and get into a better school catchment area.

If you know West Yorkshire, you probably know exactly which towns I'm talking about. Such is the reputation of both towns and their respective schools.

[sdfghswe]

Thank you for taking the time to write this, much appreciated.

Side note, I skimmed your comment history and I think we kind of think alike.

[ilikerashers]

Poor funding, demographics, crime, academic underperformance.

There isn’t a consistent factor, just a combination of the above. Teacher pay and conditions are also worse in state schools.