The need to give ‘the best’ education to their children has never been higher for parents as this is what society perceives to be the epitome of good parenting. This success is measured by good grades, co-curricular activities, entrance into Ivy League universities and finally high flying careers. The dilemma that parents face today is in choosing a school for their children, private or public? Whereas private schools have long been believed to the better option, with the prevailing economic crisis the cost of private schools is prohibitive to most parents; more people are turning to public schools because there is more data to prove that they are better than public schools. This paper seeks to debunk the myths surrounding public school education and to prove that public schools are better than private schools.
Historically the notion that private schools provide better opportunities for their students in terms of academic performance, co-curricular activities and college entry has been propagated by research findings. CEP notes that researchers such as Coleman, Hoffer & Kilgore, 1982 stated that private school students perform better in school than their public school counterparts who cited a “private school effect”. (5) These findings are what prompted reforms in the public school sector that borrowed heavily on the private school model such as school uniforms and more autonomy for schools, ostensibly to match the performance of public schools to that of private schools.
Recent research however points to a different direction, that public schools are indeed better than private schools. This is because the perceived better performance of private schools is due to other external factors other than the schools themselves. Public schools perform better, have more qualified teachers, have a wider range of facilities and are cheaper. The myths that private school students have higher chances of college entry, more satisfaction in the future and that public schools are unsafe are also dispelled showing that public schools are indeed better.
CEP (Center for Education Policy) conducted a study in 2007 that had interesting findings; they found that the academic performance of children was based on “the kinds of economic and resource advantages their parents can give them during high school, as reflected by their SES” parents with a high SES have a higher expectations for their children to succeed, are more concerned about their children’s academic performance and discuss academics with their children more. (11&14)Such children are bound to perform better than their counterparts who do not have similar parents; these parents are mostly the private school parents because they can afford the high fees and are more concerned about their children’s schooling. Parents of public school children have lower SES and are mostly not available for their children as they have to work two jobs to get money. This study shows that ‘the private school effect’ is due to social factors and not due to the schools and that when these factors are put into consideration public schools perform better.
The fact that public schools are cheaper is also another advantage, in these harsh economic times there is good news for parents since they don’t have to pay thousands of dollars for a good education that they can get for free. Private schooling “costs a family, on average, $15,000 a year”, with some schools costing as high as $40,000, parents can save all this money and still get quality education for their children if they take them to public schools. (Taylor,1)
Another study by Lubienski & Lubienski in 2006, found that when factors such as SES and the academic ability of the student at entrance are put into consideration, students in public schools are performing better in mathematics, “moreover, particularly at grade 4, public schools actually scored significantly higher than did private and charter schools.”. This study faults the approach of previous studies as they did not put into consideration all the factors when preparing their findings. They found that public schools almost always get the weakest students which cause them to be perceived to lag behind in performance. This further proves that public schools are better. (3, 4&40)
According to NCES, “Most support services are found more often in public than private
Schools” they include remedial, ESL, special classes for disabled students who are sometimes rejected by private schools. They also have more medical services, substance abuse counseling and drug and alcohol prevention programs. (28) All these programs provide a better learning environment due to this increased support thus leading to better academic performance by the students in public schools.
For a long time there have been claims that private school students have an advantage when applying to get into college. In his article Taylor interviews several people who are in college admission boards who say that private school students have no advantage when it comes to admission, they instead say that they look for "I look for qualities that don't show up on a high school transcript," and “someone who has an insatiable desire to learn, and who thinks critically." These are qualities that are found in all brilliant and hardworking students regardless of whatever school they went to. He also notes that there have been many successful children who attended public schools and the frustration that many private school students and their parents get after high school if their children don’t get into Ivy League schools after paying all that money for tuition. This article reveals that the parents with children in private schools may just be wasting their money paying for things they can get for free if they pay close attention to the academics of their children. (1)
What about the claim that students from private schools had an advantage in the three post high school outcomes of college education, civic mindedness and job satisfaction? CEP found that at the age of 26 these outcomes were again found to be more dependent on SES and the Education of the parents other than the type of school attended. There was no relationship between private schooling and job satisfaction and civic mindedness was more determined by the students’ performance in the history subject than the type of school attended. The author closes by saying that “while private school effects exist in some circumstances, they are limited and inconsistent. In comparison, family characteristics appear repeatedly to influence student performance in high school and later life.” (18) These findings again dispel the myth of the existence of a ‘private school effect’ they instead show that brilliant and hardworking students will always succeed in life regardless of the type of school they attended.
John Chubb and Terry Moe stated that “choice is a panacea” hailing autonomy in schools as the ultimate recipe for success thus implying that private schools are inherently better than public schools because they are autonomous and that the choice that parents had led to positive competition that caused academic excellence. What are these parents basing their choices on? Strauss notes that choices are based on “the demographics of a school, and sports programs are easier to observe, and parents often consider these, along with religious values,” and not necessarily academic performance. This leads to private schools concentrating more on attraction and pleasing parents more than teaching as opposed to public schools that focus more on teaching, choice might not be the panacea after all.(1)
There have also been claims that public schools are unsafe and that “public school students have a much greater exposure to crime” (NCES, 19) While this is true to some extent seeing as public schools have low SES leading to an increase in the chances of crime, it would be unfair not to notice the stringent measures that these schools have put in place to increase security such as the installation of CCTV cameras and that crime also occurs in private schools.
REFERENCES
“Are Private High Schools Better Academically Than Public High Schools?” Center on Education Policy. October 2007. Web.
Lubienski, C. Lubienski, S. “Charter, Private, Public Schools and Academic Achievement: New Evidence from NAEP Mathematics Data” National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education. January 2006. Web
“Public and private schools: how do they differ?” National center for education statistics.
July 1997. Print
Strauss, Valerie. “Are private schools better than public schools? New book says ‘no’”
The Washington Post. 5 November 2013.Web.
Taylor, Jermaine. “Is Private School Worth the 'Entitlement' and Hefty Price?” CNBC.
28 April 2013.Web.
