Education - Public or Private?

I was recently reading a plea for President-elect Obama to send his children to public schools when they move to the White House.

The article made some interesting points.

"One of the major problems with the city's schools is that they've been all but abandoned by middle-class parents who can use their political clout to hold schools to higher standards and to demand sufficient resources for them. Right now, DC schools are at a critical turning point. Some middle class families, particularly with very young kids, are starting to come back into the system, which holds great promise for the future of education in the city. But keeping those families—and convincing more to do so—is a major challenge. The arrival of the Obama girls in a DC public school would send a powerful message to other nervous yuppie parents: your kids will be ok here—come join us! Those parents can be a major force for good that, unlike tax cuts, does have a trickle down effect on lots of kids whose parents don't know how to write grant proposals or lobby Congress."

I know that many people believe that public schools don't provide a good solid education. But recent studies show otherwise. While overall, "private school students tend to do markedly better on standardized tests." The study suggests the reason "may be that they draw students from wealthier and more educated families, rather than because they're better at bolstering student achievement."

Sarah Theule Lubienski, an education professor at the the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign whose research focuses on equity issues in math education, analyzed "...raw data from the 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress for 28,000 fourth- and eighth-graders representing more than 1,300 public and private schools.... When children of similar socioeconomic status were compared, the public school children scored higher."

"When the students were divided into four socioeconomic groups, the difference between public and private school math scores was 6 to 7 points for fourth-graders in each group, and 1 to 9 points for eighth-graders. Not a large difference, says Mrs. Lubienski - more 'small to moderate.'"

In fact, students "in public schools learn as much or more math between kindergarten and fifth grade as similar students in private schools, according to a new University of Illinois study of multi-year, longitudinal data on nearly 10,000 students."

Granted, private schools generally spend more on athletic programs. But shouldn't school be about learning? Unless your child will be lucky to fall into the tiny percentile that move up to the NFL and don't crash and burn due to injuries (and I wouldn't bet on it), what advantage are you giving your child by pushing athletic achievement over intellectual achievement?

My views on private schools is that they should only exist for religious instruction. If you want your child to have a good education as well as study say Judaism, then send your child to a private Jewish school. If you just need your child to have a good education, send your child to public schools.

But while I understand parents desire to have their children instructed in the family's faith, in sending your child to a private school aren't you causing them to miss out on some diversity? Shouldn't children meet and pal around with children of different faiths, cultures, heritages? Doesn't that better promote understanding and tolerance?

Not that I am saying that children that exit the private school system are inherently intolerant. No, I'm speaking in generalities here. Obviously some people with private school experience will disagree with me. I'm just saying the risk is certainly there. It takes a very big person to innately have tolerance and understanding for others when they spent their formative years sheltered from others.

When I was younger I knew a guy who went to a private religious school. We will call him "Tom". Tom was pretty open minded but there were obviously things he had never encountered until he graduated high school. His ability to talk to women was slightly undeveloped due to knowing the same 20 females from kindergarten until 12th grade. And the first time he met an openly gay man was a real eye opener for him.

Education should be more than book learning. Children need to learn about tolerance and diversity. This type of education is best accelerated by actually interacting with people that are different than you. Different economic brackets, different faiths, different cultures. Your child is very unlikely to be meeting various people across the economic spectrum in a private school.

Sending your children to private schools (for any reason other than religious instruction) is putting a band-aid on something that shouldn't even be a problem. America is one of the richest and most powerful nations in the world. We should be able to educate our children better than we have been doing.

If more people had faith in the public schools and were willing to devote some time to bettering them, we would be giving a great service to future children. Which would be helping our future as well.