Economic welfare is the level of wellbeing or prosperity or living standards of people in a country. The government should want to maximise the welfare of there citizens as the neo classical theory tells us.

 

If private schools where abolished this will lead to all children having the same level of education and class level will not decide the standard of education, you will receive. This will lead to lower classes have more opportunity to succeed later in life as they will be receiving the same education as higher classes which will lead to a smaller gap in the class hierarchy. For parents who send their children to state school this will benefit them as the level of education should be increased as the competition has increased as everyone is at the same level. This is a positive for the government as the can control the standard of education and this can lead to improved literacy rates in the country and increased standard of living. The parents who send their children to private school may be better off as they will still receive a high level of education and no extra cost. However, some parents may have rationally chose to put their children in to a private school to give them a head start in life and make it easier for them to get higher paying jobs. This will lead to those parents being unhappy and feel as they have not maximised their utility as they have not felt satisfied with the money they have earnt and are able to spend. But utility can be achieved by high income parents spending extra money on tuition which will lead those children rising above the lower income children decreasing overall consumer welfare.

 

All schools being state school may help close the class system and give lower classes higher chance to achieve better education and the same level with higher classes. However, this is not the case as state schools with high achieving grades are normally in London which has a higher yearly income per person than the rest of the country. The house prices are also higher in those areas making only the higher-class families able to afford to live there and be educated in these high achieving schools. This will keep the class system open and make it harder for equality throughout the country as the higher income families receive better standard of education making them stay at the top of the hierarchy where as lower income families are in lower standard education making it harder for them to rise to the top and break through the class system. This will cause no increase in economic welfare as the lower income families will not see no increase in education and higher income families stay at the top.

Overall, I believe increase in consumer welfare will not be achieved by demolishing private school as tax prices may be increased for all. Due to more people using state funded education more government funds will have to be spent on this. This will lead to an increase in tax as more people will be using more people will be using the government education system. This will lead to a decrease in economic welfare overall as people will have less money to spend on luxury and leisure and more will be paid to taxes for the education even though there will not be an increase in the level of education. With the potential of tax increase this may lead to overall unhappiness and utility of the citizens to be low.