By Francesca Wilski,

Today, Bromley Council announced its plans to redistribute public money to subsidise private school fees for children whose parents have been made redundant.

‘At the end of the day what matters is that each child gets a good education’ says Councillor Ernest Noad. However, surely the £4,700 pounds of state cash for just one pupil’s private education would go allot further and improve the education of more than one pupil if given to a state school?

Naturally there has been some uproar about the scheme, Graham Cruer, executive member of the NASUWT union, said: “It would be immoral to use money in this way,” however, I feel there could be a viable moral upside to the proposal. With state school’s suddenly inundated with former private school children, keeping more children in private schooling would keep state school numbers down. Over packed classrooms often lead to a fall in educational standards, so the scheme could in fact be beneficial for all pupils in Bromley.

The Conservatives have been pushing their claims to be ‘progressive’ on public services. Along with Tory MEP Dan Hannan’s recent hit on the NHS, this development could serve to reinstate Cameron’s Toff too-cool-for-state-schools label that he has tried to eliminate.