‘For all that private schools uphold the privileges of money and class,’ reflects Ian Jack, contrasting the modern U.K. experience (which is more or less the experience everywhere) with the time of Henry VIII, ‘to dismantle them would need the strength of will that dissolved the monasteries.’ (Note that the comparison is particularly apt in the context of the recent release of Hilary Mantel’s ‘Bring up the Bodies’, sequel to the Booker Prize-winning ‘Wolf Hall’.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/18/abolishing-private-schools-wont-happen