The Private School Myth
Art by Sierra Randel
Virtually every child in America goes to school. Approximately 9% of these children attend a private school. These are schools that are not bound by state regulations and are privately funded, usually by charging tuition. They are generally considered better than their public counterparts: a Gallup poll found that in 2017, 71% of its respondents felt that independent private schools and 63% felt that parochial schools (basically religious private schools) do an excellent or good job educating children, compared with 44% for public schools. Education statistics seem to justify the public’s confidence in private schooling. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) analyzed standardized testing scores for grades 4 and 8, and found that private school students, on average, scored higher than public school students. The National Association of Independent Schools found that its members (all private schools) had higher average SAT scores than the national average. However, these statistics and the oft-repeated narrative regarding “failing public schools” obfuscate a more nuanced reality: private schooling itself is not the primary cause of academic achievement. Furthermore, a lack of diversity, lack of regulation, and restrictive student environments constitute significant drawbacks of private schooling.
The most crucial point should be addressed first: the high test scores observed from private school students are not a function of the schools, but rather other factors like socioeconomic status. The same NCES study that found higher standardized testing scores at private schools also found that when controlling for other factors of school success, including the percent of students eligible for free lunch, percent of students with a disability, and percent of students in the Title 1 program, private school score averages were not significantly higher than public school averages in grade four reading, grade four math, and grade eight math. Other studies generally corroborate this finding. One study compared whether a subject went to private school to their academic performance, social adjustment, and propensity for risky behavior in ninth grade. After controlling for family income, researchers found no statistically significant correlation. Another found that socioeconomic status plays a major role in determining educational outcomes. This makes sense: lower-income students face more barriers to academic success. Consider Melody Vidal, who was a high school senior when she started working at a Cinnabon in order to help her mom financially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In an interview, she said that “[her] biggest fear was being homeless.” Her situation is not unique: a quick Google search revealed an endless list of stories like hers. Time spent working takes away from the time one can dedicate to school and rest. As such, working students are more likely to struggle academically. This is just one example of the many struggles that low-income students face.
Accounting for these barriers makes the difference in outcomes between public and private schools clearer. Private school students tend to come from more wealthy families who can afford to pay tuition, so they do better academically because of the benefits of wealth (personal space at home to study, not having to work to support their family, money for tutors and SAT prep, etc), not because their school is private. This is not to say that school quality does not play a role in student outcomes, but rather that the alleged difference in quality between public and private schools can be attributed to other factors.
Another important thing to note is that private school test scores may benefit from a selection bias. Some private schools require applicants to pass tests to get in and expel underperforming students: two things public schools are not allowed to do. These policies essentially allow private schools to choose their students. Take Valley Christian, a private school near my hometown of San Jose. To apply to their middle school, one needs three recommendations (English teacher, math teacher, and a clergy), standardized test results, transcripts, and an essay. This extremely rigorous admissions process benefits already academically strong students. Any school that limits their population to already high-performing students will see higher test scores, regardless if they are public or private.
Private schools also have a myriad of their own issues, one major one being a lack of diversity: private school populations are disproportionately white, with incomes high enough to afford tuition. These homogeneous environments deprive students the benefits of a diverse community. An analysis of higher education institutions found that students who went to more racially diverse schools were more likely to report improvement in a variety of dimensions, including leadership abilities, interpersonal skills, public speaking, and cultural awareness. Increased interaction with people from other backgrounds has also been linked to an increase in civic activity, including participation in politics and volunteering. There are also negative effects of a lack of diversity. For example, racial minorities on homogenous campuses report higher feelings of isolation and loneliness. An environment where a student feels isolated is not a good learning environment: solo status - being the only member of a racial group in an environment, has been linked to declines in performance.
More fundamentally, even if academic outcomes were not affected by diversity, a lack of diversity still hurts students. Education is about more than test scores: a successful school will equip its students with the tools needed to achieve their future goals, whatever those may be. Being able to interact with people from different backgrounds is one of those tools. Diverse schools will provide students with more opportunities to have those interactions early, so they can learn and grow from them. A lack of diversity limits these interactions, preventing students from being able to develop this skill and setting them up for future setbacks. From a more societal standpoint, it is important that we are able to interact with people from other backgrounds: it allows for more understanding to be fostered. High levels of people who are not used to diverse environments will negatively impact our ability to empathize with and understand each other. To be clear, racial and socioeconomic segregation is not only an issue in private schools. Public schools also suffer from high rates of segregation. However, there is a crucial difference: the lack of diversity in public schools is largely a symptom of the residential segregation that resulted from decades of discriminatory housing policies. In private schools, the lack of diversity is partially caused by the nature of private schools themselves: because most private schools are funded via tuition payments, they are inherently inaccessible to a large proportion of the population. Thus, even in a perfectly integrated neighborhood, private schools would still experience a lack of diversity that public schools would not.
Another drawback of private schools is a lack of regulation. Private schools, by definition, are not subject to most state education codes governing curriculum, disciplinary policies, and student protections. This freedom is seen as a strength by private school advocates: it gives them more latitude to innovate. However, this freedom is a double-edged sword. The same regulations that “stifle innovation” are also used to ensure some consistency of quality across public schools. Therefore, the ceiling for private schools may be higher than public schools, but the floor is much lower. One example of this is sexual education. California has a law called the California Healthy Youth Act, which essentially bans abstinence-only education. However, private schools are not subject to California’s Education code. As such, they are able to teach abstinence-only education, which has been proven to have negative health outcomes for students. The harms of abstinence-only are obvious. By not teaching students about birth control methods (which can also protect against STDs), administrations increase the risk for underage pregnancy and STD transmission. The fact that private schools are allowed to teach such outdated and disproven curriculum is dangerous for our education system.
The lack of regulation can also lead to a more restrictive student environment. Just as private schools are exempt from curriculum requirements, they are also exempt from student discrimination protections. This can have unfortunate consequences: a 2019 survey of students across the United States found that LGBTQ+ students in religious schools were the most likely to experience discriminatory school practices. Given that 84% of private schools are religious, it can be inferred that a significant portion of queer youth in private schools face discriminatory policies. It is important to note that the survey found that non-religious private schools, generally more supportive resources for LGBTQ+ students. This does not mean that the lack of regulation is not a problem but demonstrates that the current private school system also results in wide disparities in learning environments. It should also be mentioned that, obviously, discrimination can and does exist at public schools. But the difference is that, at public schools, discriminatory policies can be rectified via legislation. Private schools are exempt from most regulations, so such policies are harder to change.
I am not arguing that private schools are bad, but that the narrative that private schools are simply better than public schools is a flawed one. The focus on institutional deficiencies as opposed to broader societal factors leads to policies like school vouchers, which give public funds to certain families for private school. This changes a student’s school without really doing anything to invest in stronger indicators of student achievement. As such, the often negative student outcomes are not surprising. This narrative also leads to under-investment in public schools and the disadvantaged communities many of them serve, because why would a government throw money at an inherently inferior and perpetually “failing” school? Finally, discussions about the differences in academic outcomes in public and private schools without an understanding of the true reasons behind it can lead to the stereotyping of public school students, especially students of color, as “bad students.”
The solutions to the private school problem are legally and politically difficult to achieve: the legal debate regarding the extent to which the free exercise clause applies to education (see Carson v. Makin, Espinoza v. Montana, etc) is a storied history that could be an article of its own. In summary, it is likely that any regulations states may try to impose on private schools - like mandating curriculum or setting hiring practice standards, would be challenged and struck down by the courts. Additionally, school choice advocates have a very powerful lobby. But we can begin with cultivating an understanding that, in a broad sense, all education is public. It matters if your brother is scientifically literate enough to get vaccinated, if a fellow voter knows how to spot misinformation, and if your co-workers are used to working with people of different cultural backgrounds. Everyone benefits from a more educated society. Leaving such important societal outcomes in the hands of unaccountable and unelected private school executives with sweeping discretion is dangerous and irresponsible.