U.K. Regulator Scraps Rules on Private-School Tuition Aid

Following a lengthy legal fight, Britain’s Charity Commission has agreed to drop controversial rules requiring schools that charge fees to demonstrate the “public benefit” they provide, particularly by giving free or reduced tuition for poor pupils, or risk losing tax-exempt status, The Telegraph writes.

The Upper Tribunal, a U.K. judicial body established to decide on contentious areas of law, had said that it would quash the commission’s guidelines for private schools if the regulatory body did not withdraw elements of the rules the judges termed “wrong” and “obscure.”

The ruling came after the commission and the Independent Schools Council, which represents private academies, failed to reach an agreement on rewriting the public-benefit rules, as they were ordered to do in October by Britain’s High Court.