Introduction
A large body of literature in economics, education, and sociology shows that students attending private schools outperform students attending traditional public schools in a wide range of outcomes. Since a common feature of private schools is their autonomy from school district offices, these findings strengthen initiatives to improve outcomes of public school students through the establishment of charter public schools in the United States, free schools in the United Kingdom, independent public schools in Australia, and community-managed schools in many developing countries. It is often unclear, however, whether private and independent public schools causally improve student outcomes and, even if they do, which characteristics drive such improvements.
Studies attempting to identify the effects of private or charter schooling and to disentangle the various causal mechanisms face several challenges. First, it is difficult to identify the causal effects of independent public or private schooling on students’ outcomes on the basis of most observational data available because unobserved selection bias is pervasive and challenging to address (Altonji et al. 2005a). Although recent natural experimental evidence based on the random assignment of private school vouchers or oversubscribed charter school slots to low-income applicants shows significant positive effects of these schools on student outcomes, it is still difficult to learn precisely which aspects of these schools explain the differences in outcomes. When these studies compare the outcomes between the randomly selected receivers (treatment group) and non-receivers (control group) of private school vouchers or charter school slots, the estimated effects of private...
... middle of paper ...
... possessing an advanced teaching certificate and employs 8.5 percent of its teachers on a short-term contract. More than 96 percent of schools ability-track their students in English and mathematics classes, but fewer than 15 percent of schools ability-track their students in Korean, science, and social science classes. On average, four percent of high school students came from families on governmental welfare support. Twelve percent of students receive free lunch support from the government. Ethnic minority students are rare; 0.1 percent of the student population.
Finally, Table 1 summarizes student-level data of the NAEA test takers in 2010. Out of the 88,406 students expected to take the NAEA tests in 2010, about three percent missed some of the tests. We normalize the NAEA test scores, which range between 100 and 300, to have mean zero and standard deviation 1.
The idea that vouchers give parents a choice of schools for their children is simply incorrect. The only people who have any real choice in the matter are the private...
She realized that choice and accountability were not the answer, but that curriculum and instruction were more viable solutions to America’s educational dilemma. Ravitch suggests that to abandon public schools is to abandon the institution that supports our concepts of democracy and citizenship and to the promise of American life (Ravitch, 2011, p. 12-14). The idea of school choice is rooted in Milton Friedman’s essay concerning the government’s role in education. Friedman asserted that society should support and contribute to the maximum freedom of the individual or the family. He maintained that the government should provide vouchers to help support parents financially on their children’s education, which parents could use at the school of their choosing; so long as the school met set standards. Therefore, this creation of choice would stimulate competition, which Friedman believed would increase the development and improvement of nonpublic schools, as well as, create a variety of school options (Ravitch, 2011, p. 115). As a result of the choice movement, the public received three versions of school choice: voucher schools, private schools, and charter schools. Each of these schools receives public funding, but do not operate as traditional public schools, and are not managed by a government agency (Ravitch, 2011, p. 121). Charter schools became the most popular choice of this new
Public School Choice is an easy program to understand and it contains many advantages but also many disadvantages. Public School Choice is when parents can elect to send their children out of a school that has not made adequate yearly progress for two consecutive years into a school that has made progress. (McClure, 2002) If there are no available schools within the original school district, then a family can choose to send their children to another district. This only happens when the other schools in the original district are all labeled as ‘underachieving schools’ and have not made the adequate yearly progress. (McClure, 2002)
As the 2010 documentary, The Lottery, reveals, the charter vs. public school controversy continues to increase, creating rising tensions in communities nationally. The film centers on the issue in New York's Harlem and an actual lottery enabling a select few children to attend a charter, rather than a zoned school. This is however, essentially a microcosmic version of the larger debate, and perhaps the most interesting aspect of it is that both sides are after the same goal: the best possible education for children within the public school sector. The issue is complex, as the realities of charter and public schools present a wide range of specific concerns. Nonetheless, both sides of the debate are united by another element, that of identifying whether charter schools actually serve student needs more successfully than public schools. When the actual circumstances are assessed, the important complications surrounding the debate are noted, and the misleading and enormous factor of public perception is addressed, it is seen that charter schools are not superior to public schools.
While private invested charter schools may seem to be the right choice for some children,
Vouchers redirect money that would have been spent on educating a child in the public school system to a private school of the parent’s choosing. Voucher use is based on two factors, student eligibility and school eligibility. Those students who would be eligible for vouchers are among those in low-income families. School eligibility widely varies state by state. In some states school eligibility is restricted only to nonsectarian private schools, where elsewhere any private school is eligible (Resnick, 1998). Those who support vouchers offer three reasons for their position. One reason being that most public schools are failing, secondly vouchers help the children who use them, and thirdly vouchers create competition that motivates public schools to improve (Resnick, 1998). However, opponents argue that funding should be put toward improving the current public school system for the masses instead of allowing a better education to an elite few. Research is largely opposed to vouchers. Vouchers imprudently use public funds to back religious education, degrade public education, and support elitism.
Public schools in the United States are provided by the state, and federal funding. More than 90 percent of children attend public schools. Private schools in the United States include schools in which religion is a priority. Clearly, public schools provide more education than private schools in the United States. Private schools are built were created for the administration, and parents to communicate, and a priority to involve parents in the child’s learning environment. From frequent parent-teacher meetings, social events, and family events, and fundraising initiatives, families become an important part of the child’s education. This also creates a strong bond between parent, and student. Also qualified teachers are making a difference
“If it’s a school day, during school hours, one-fifth of the total American population consists of public school students K through 12. One in five Americans. And if you count teachers and administrators you are probably going to get pretty close to one-quarter of the population of the county at nay given time on a weekday sitting in a public school building.” – (School, the story of American public education)
Wilson, Steven F., and Research American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy. Success At Scale In Charter Schooling. Education Outlook. No. 3. American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 2009. ERIC. Web. 11 Nov. 2011.
The overriding rationale for education vouchers is the simple fact that private schools are better than public schools and public schools are a disaster, creating an illusion. There is a wide assumption that private schools somehow increase educational equity, with the interpretation that all low-income children and minorities can take advantage of private education. What is not known about education vouchers is the way it uses private school as a scapegoat in order to avoid the real issues surrounding the problems of public schools. Private school choices only serve as an excuse because they only offer admission to a limited portion of low-income and minorities. The seats are limited, “all you are doing is making tiny adjustments in the allocation of educational opportunities for a very small number of children and still condemning a large number of children to poorly funded, inadequate schools” (Hammond 10). The histories of education vouchers go back to the 1776, when Adam Smith proposed that government give money to parents in order to diversify and up the competition in the classroom. Smith also concluded that because parents are the consumers, they should have the right to choose their children education. In the late eighteen century, Thomas Pain took Smiths concept to the United Sates, “the poor should be given special aid and parents should be required to purchase education for their children”. In 1859, John Stuart Mill contradicted Pain’s argument by imposing that government should require a minimum education for every child, but parents should have the option to seek education, how and wherever they wanted. By the 1800s there was a great influx of immigrants to the United States and public schools had to be readily ...
Income inequality in the United States is directly correlated with education decline over the past 40 years. People with lower incomes tend to have less opportunities for a good education than those with higher incomes. American education, when compared to other nations, has dropped dramatically due largely to a rise in income inequality since the 1970s. Not only has economic inequality lead to academic decline and disparity, but academic disparity has also tended to lead to further economic inequality. Because of this, improving the American education system can effectively decrease the income gap. If done correctly, the usage of an alternative school model, specifically the private school model, rather than the usual public school model can reduce economic inequality.
Public education has been able to provide the necessary education to students, despite its limited capabilities. Students are offered the same education in public schools as they are in private schools. Students make their choice on whether or not they want to apply themselves, and learn from the teachers in front of them. In private schools students are excited to learn. Maybe that is why they have better test scores. Students enrolled in public schools have a tendency to fail, or some succeed. These options are taken by students who who either try, or do not care. Either way, every student has an equal opportunity to gain an education.
Many people in today’s society believe it’s wise to send their children to private schools. In making the decision on whether to put children in public or private schools, they look to four main factors: curriculum, class size, the graduation rate, and cost. When people have to pay for something, their first thought is, “Will I be getting what I’m paying for?” With a private school education, the amount you have to pay is usually well worth it. Public schools offer diversity. Here students can find people who are just like them and can associate better. Wherever you live, you have to send your child to the closest school. There’s no choice on what public school you can send your child to, whereas for private schools you can pick to send your child there. It’s not an easy choice for parents to decide, but many factors point toward a guarantee that a good education would be achieved, which is most important.
For some parents, deciding on a school for their children can be a difficult decision. Many parents do not spend much time thinking about it; they place their children into the local school designated by where they live. Others attended a private school themselves and found that it was a beneficial experience and therefore want the same for their kids. But which is better: private schools or public schools? While there are many advantages and disadvantages in each (nothing is going to be absolutely perfect), we are going to focus on the benefits of an education in the public school system, or in other words, schools funded by the government that are for anyone to attend. An accurate definition found in the Encyclopedia of American Education (1996) states: “Any elementary or secondary school under control of elected or appointed civil authority, supported entirely by public tax monies, and, with few exceptions, open to all students in a designated district, free of any tuition charges.” (780) These include elementary, secondary schools and vocational schools. Public schools are a good choice in education because they provide a wide variety of subjects to study, are diverse in their student body, available to everyone, yet can sometimes be misunderstood.
There are many decisions for parents to choose private or public school for their kids. Every parent wants what is best for his or her child. A person's education is one of the most important aspects in determining whether or not they will become a productive member of society. Education is so important. We need to look at both public and private schools to find out if there is a difference. Private schools are a better choice than public school for many reasons. Private encourages strong quality teaching, encourages higher education learning, and inhibit the rampant of bullying.