I think having both is good for kids as it offers them a choice. In some cases, the public schools are much better but in some areas, the public school absolutely sucks and the kids need a better option (And if the parents cannot afford it, vouchers).

Private schools are nice.
Having a built-up reservoir of rich preppy @#%$ kids might come in handy sometime in the future.

aww, thankyou BBQ, you're too kind. ^.^

alas i came out of private school not preppy in the least, i feel that i'm letting you down somewhat there as i'm not rich either. middle class, but certainly not rich. *swats you with her spork* quit with the assumptions, neh?

my education at a private school was so much better then my public secondary school. classes were smaller, the food better..heck, the whole general education i recieved there was better. i doubt that i speak for the whole of the country here.. it can greatly vary across the regions.

then again, at my private primary school i was given one-to-one tutoring to help with my dyslexia. i think i'll never forget what i learnt there.
a massive shame my old primary school was knocked down and turned into housing a few years after i left.

= Damn stereotypes... I went to a private Catholic school, but my family isn't rich... hell, I had to work all summer just so I could keep going there... $7000 is a lot for tuition.

I agree with Tornadot... There are pros and cons to both. And a little help from the government would have been nice...

Home school for the win.

My statement is judged exclusively on personal experiences, which fulfilled my statement 90% of the time.
The other 10%? Well, I wouldn't say they were assholes.

I wish I could be home schooled.

For me, private school was good for the most part up until I hit junior high. Up until that time, I had more or less been friendly with my classmates, but they did a complete turnaround after we left elementary.

The public school I went to afterwards, though, was the best time of my life. Oddly though, a lot of the people I knew from the private school were a lot nicer at college.

I must agree, homeschooled was also fun...until I drove my parents batty by finishing the books too quickly. And then I decided to go to the worst high school in the state...

American Catholic schools tend to break the mold on the idea that private schools are for rich snooty kids, because when they were originally established, Catholics were the poor Polish, Irish, Italian etc. immigrants who had just arrived in the country, and the public school couldn't handle them all. Back then most were entirely taught by nuns, had the financial support of a parish to back them, and didn't charge any tuition.

These days, it's different since Catholics are no longer majorly poor, and because there are a lot less nuns and Churches don't bring in enough money to completely support a modern school.

It's not the case with all Catholic schools today, but many will go above and beyond to waive a lot of tuition if you're Catholic and really want to get in.

Public schools in Italy are pretty bad, I remember my time in kindergarden, which completely sucked. The teachers would beat us if we didn't behave. And I misbehaved a lot. On purpose.

My parents only put me into a private school because it gave me a possibility to learn german, whereas I wouldn't be able to in other schools, but we're not rich, rather middle class and my dad works his butt off to have enough money to pay for me and my brother. (I guess this is also one of the reasons why I'm so wary of spending money, even if I have enough available.)

Other parents would say that's stupid, they'd rather send their kids to the public school and use the money to buy a house, a new car or some expensive vacation on some tropical island. But my parents are of the opinion that the education of their children is more important than that.

Better private school than possibly the worst school system in the U.S. (Georgia).

well i go to well its kinda like a mix between a privit and a public school i go to BVT its a trade school you have to take somewhat of a test to get in and you have to be atleast a B student and you have to be intervewed and per student it costs ower towns over $15,000 to send us there per year so do the math $15,000 x 800 or more kids x 4 years... but the school is awsome anyway...

wow... I find it reaaaly hard to believe you go to a school that costs $15000 a year... cripes, that's more than I pay for a years worth of University...

I've only ever been to State schools (is that puplic over there?), and the system is full of both pros and cons. In my point of view anyway.

There is much more diversity in State schools I think, as you have kids who don't have much money and those who do but don't go private anyway. There's those who are pushed into constant work by their parents, those who just enjoy learning and those who can't be bothered. And you get much more prepared for life after education. It hardens you up a lot. I don't know if that's actually good or not but w/e

However you don't get the help you sometimes need, for instance if you have dyslexia none of the teachers do anything and the child often turns disruptive. And then the school excludes them. Smart kids often underacheive because they aren't pushed enough and kids who struggle underacheive because they aren't given the help they need. And also there are lots of idiots, the loud gobby ones who enjoy bullying people and being racist. At my school the entirety of GSCE students are complete twats. I just avoid them when possible c.c Also the schools are on tight budgets, and often we run out of materials in Art and Design. That's why my school has become a Sports Specialist college, so they get additional grants.

Still. I think I turned out allright, I have a good group of friends. I might not be churning out A grades but the system is good enough for me.

I bring packed lunches though!

I've gone to public schools my entire life. I guess it depends on where you live, but our public schools are better than most of the private schools in the area.

Though the class sizes tended to be larger (I think in 3rd grade, I had 25 kids in my class - and that was one of the smaller classes), they had (and still have) all sorts of aides ready to help kids with learning/reading disabilities every day. And for the more accelerated kids, they have a program called "Project Arrow" which pulls them out of class a few times a week to do extra, non-graded projects. I remember learning about the brain, marine biology and ships, the stock exchange, Mayan culture... things like that.

They offer all sorts of honors and AP classes at my high school to cater to different students' abilities. The best example is in our choir program. We have eight different curricular choirs, two show choirs (intermediate and advanced), four a capella choirs, and a gospel choir that non-music students can participate in.

Apply that kind of range to everywhere else and you've got my high school.

I know not all public schools are like that... heck, go about ten miles down the road and the quality public and private schools reverse dramatically.

~Shadowed Spirit Sage

I've only ever experienced public schools so I guess I can't really judge. Still, I fully agree with what trudi said, there are notacible pros and cons. I felt like I underachieved at my public school since because the teachers weren't catering to what I needed.