Public Schools versus Private Schools

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Public Schools versus Private Schools Essay Sample

Private institutions are controlled by individual groups, organizations, and agencies rather than the government. According to Green (2010), more than 29,000 private schools in the US are non-profit institutions; their target is to provide quality education. They usually charge fees; however, their purpose is to purvey expenses such as salaries, teaching materials, electric power, and other student-based charges. Profit-making private schools have the same idea, namely to offer the best education to their students. Therefore, they purposely hire the most qualified lecturers in specific fields.

In 2008, Statistics from the National Center for Education revealed that more than three thirds of all private schools are found in the urban or semi-urban locations. They have a population of not more than 300 students. In the United States, during 2005-2006 academic years, 10 percent of the students attended private schools. The average ratio of teachers to students was found to be 1 to 13.

Public schools offer free education to more than 80% of all the students in the United States. Public schools serve to nurture, train and offer an environment for social cohesion and learning to the poor and general community. Public schools are managed by the state, teachers are paid by the government, and their curriculum is directed by the National Board. Amenities such as free bus to school, meals and library access are offered in public schools. Students can also work after school, for instance in the library and the school canteen (Saporito & Sohoni, 2007).

Privatization of schools has concerns over sufficient quality providers for poor children, the development of schools with no community, or national interest. Possible increase in certain ethnic and class segregation and a possibility of facing current inequalities such as the blacks who are regarded as poor and can thus not attend private schools. Both public and private schools provide a free market for education giving parents freedom of choice. Therefore, parochial schools offer religious as well as traditional academic education (McEwan, 2001).

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Private schools are very crucial in the United States since they effectively encourage creativity among teachers and students. In addition, educators can adopt methods that will efficiently serve during their classes. Private schools instill competition into public schools; consequently, educators, administrators, and parents are motivated to uplift their own schools. Private schools have alienated overcrowding in the public schools, offered better infrastructure as well as a choice for parents (Lee 2006).

Private schools gain advantage, first of all, from originality. Since the state has little control over its programs, the school can adopt ways and methods that are deemed best for the students. The second upside is variability. Parents have another option of public schools between which they can choose either due to better values or quality education. Thirdly, competition means that private schools take only well-qualified students, thus it forces students to work harder and perform better to increase the chance of being engaged in skewed vacancies. In addition, private schools boast of responsibility. Therefore, profit-making private schools handle parents and students as clients and therefore are obligated to understand and serve their desires and distress.

However, there are shortfalls associated with private schools. Schools tend to host mostly children from rich families owing to the high tuition fees charged, which presents a challenge of inequality. Some private schools take only those students that subscribe to specific religion. What is more, there is a marked lack of communal solidity. Owing to unique and specific students in private schools, most of students lack public dissertation.

Public schools are critiqued based on poor results, funds, infrastructure, and development. To ruin boundaries between private and public schools, free market competition ought to be in order. Students have to be given equal chances to access either of the two. For instance, public and private schools should offer funds, as well as consider equal test score range. Such competition will definitely improve the quality of education countrywide (Lee, 2006).

Public schools are geared to the majority, including middle-class culture, and are not attuned to the inclinations of certain groups of parents outside the mainstream as many poor parents are. Public school administrators argue that vouchers would help some students, but at the cost of others. The National School Boards Association concurs that vouchers abandon public schools, siphoning off money when it is needed the most (Green, 2010).

The educators of public schools have to follow set guidelines from the National Board; consequently, they can do less to improve their teaching styles and modules. The trend is usually the same, which makes it quite boring and less innovative. The facilities provided by public schools are in poor conditions owing to poor management and lack of funds to repair or purchase new ones.

Public schools host everyone no matter the social status, ethnicity, religion, or race. It offers a centralized location where students exchange ideas and learn. However, boundaries are adopted such as district and national schools. Moreover, public schools have limited extracurricular activities. Statistics reveal that public schools are overcrowded with a population of more than 30 students per teacher (Al-Shehab, 2008).

Private schools encourage competition, quality education and parent participation in the education process. Most American schools are national and funded by the state budget. However, private schools are also important. Private schools have a much higher level of educational standards. As a rule, they guarantee that everyone will have an opportunity to study in a prestigious university. Each year, private schools are spending very large sums for the introduction of new educational technology and construction of sports facilities (Lee, 2006). Some of the required courses include mathematics, history, literature, English and sports. In many schools, the list also includes a foreign language. Usually students can also decide at what level they want to study a particular subject. Schools employ career advisors that tell students what courses they need to select for the admission to the university of their choice. However, the main disadvantage of the private school is a cost of education.

Speaking about national schools, it should be mentioned that they are cheaper. However, these schools have lower educational standards and the usual class is 35-40 people in comparison to 15-18 people in private schools. The primary task of national schools is to prepare children for the adult life and give knowledge of the main subjects. Children have to attend schools according to the place of residence except for children studying in private schools. The basic administrative unit of the state education is educational district whose boundaries usually coincide with the borders of the municipality, city or county. Issues of the establishment of educational standards, conducting examinations for pupils and school funding issues are resolved at the state level. Personally, I am studying in the national school and think that my school program is able to prepare me for the university. Moreover, it will be easier for me to adapt to a communal society.

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