Public and Private Schools

Private schools are also referred to as independent schools or non-governmental schools. They are schools that are not administered by the national governments or the local states. This means that they have a right to select their students. Such schools are funded by charging the tuition fee to the students. They do not rely on mandatory taxation through public funding. A public school is also known as an independent school. In the United States, a public school refers to a part of free native education system. This essay will focus on the comparison and contrast of public and private schools from quality education, exposure to violence, social development, decisions on the enrolment of students, and so on. Moreover, it will also discuss the pros and cons of each of the schools.

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Similarities between Private and Public Schools.

Quality of Education

As much as there exists a difference in giving out quality education, there are rules for both schools to have a certain number of credits in some of the core subjects like English, science and mathematics so as to graduate (Murnane et al., 1985).

Exposure to Violence

Both private and public schools' administrators are concerned with ensuring that all the learners are not exposed to any form of violence. They take it as their roles and responsibilities to ensure that the child's safety is among their topmost priorities.

Social Development

Both public and private schools argue that schools is a tool for social development of the students. For instance, students who have undergone the process of schooling have excellent socialization skills than those who have not. In both schools, the learners learn how to socialize with their teachers and friends.

Enrolment of Students

On the aspect of admission of pupils, both private and public schools have a kind of testing. They review the transcripts to determine the level which the new students are supposed to be administered (Murnane et al., 1985).

Differences between Public and Private Schools

Quality Education

On the provision of quality education, it is mandatory for the public schools to adhere to the standards of the state regarding what is being taught and how it is presented. The quality of education in the public schools is lower than that of their counterparts. The reason for this is because there a limit of what is supposed to be taught in the public schools. On the contrary, private schools offer quality education. It has a broad curriculum that enables it to teach what it likes (Devins, 1989).

Exposure to Violence

In public schools, students are at a high risk of being exposed to violence. Shootings and other forms of violence have taken place in public schools. This has resulted in the application of strict rules to maintain a safe learning atmosphere. Conversely, private schools are regarded to be the best regarding safety. They have a low population making it easy to control the whole population. A survey was done in 1999 and 200 which showed that the rate of a threat of violence in public schools is high compared to that of their counterparts (Murnane et al., 1985).

Enrolment of Students

Regarding enrolment, it is mandatory for public schools to accept all students within their jurisdiction with few expectations. Behavior is one of the few expectations. Bad behavior must be well renowned over time. For a private school, the case is very different (Devins, 1989). They accept any students they wish according to their set academic and other standards. It does not have to give an explanation of why it has not admitted individual students. Its decision is final, and no one is supposed to question them.

Social development

According to education Devins (1989), there has been a lot of controversies in the social development of the learners in public and private schools. However, many scholars argue that the private schools are the best in developing the social skills of the students that the public schools.

Pros and Cons of Public Schools

Pros

Attending public schools has numerous advantages. Regarding cost, public schools are very cheap, and anyone can afford them. For instance, the learners from poor backgrounds will always have access to education since it is affordable. This makes education available to every student in the community regardless of their capability, disability or income level. Additionally, public schools are culturally diverse because they admit all the students. Thus, the students learn how to interact in a culturally diverse environment. Lastly, the learners from public schools are exposed to extracurricular opportunities. It is mandatory for every pupil to participate in extracurricular activities hence leading to the physical well-being of the learners.

Cons

Despite the advantages, there are few disadvantages of the public schools. To begin with, there are little school choices for the children because the majority of the students join the zoned schools. The classrooms are often filled. Hence, a teacher may not be cater for the individual differences of the learners. Thus, the gifted and the struggling learners may be lost in the struggle. Moreover, access to learning materials in the public schools is always limited. The textbooks tend to be worn out and outdated. This contributes to the production of quality education (Devins, 1989).

Pros and Cons of private schools

Pros

The private school curricula focus on specialized topics. For instance, a private school can specialize in creative arts. Such topics prepare the students for higher education and careers in the specialized field. According to Murnane et al., (1985), the class sizes are not overcrowded thus the student teacher ratio is low. Therefore, the teacher can cater for individual differences of the learners leading to the production of quality education. They also have better access to the learning resources and useful classroom technology. The learners in private schools have high graduation rates and get their degrees in the mid-20s.

Cons

Not everyone can afford private schools. The cost of attending private schools is high than that of attending public schools. The courses are specialized hence the students have a certain range of subjects they can pursue (Devins, 1989). Since they are not controlled by the state, the teachers are not required to hold teaching degrees and custom curriculum projects might be inadequate. Nevertheless, teachers in private schools are likely to report being satisfied with the school and educational climate then their counterpart.

Conclusion

In summary, there is a lot of variation in public and private schools. As discussed above, private schools offer quality education, are less exposed to violence, nurture the social development of the learners very well, and are independent when it comes to the enrolment as compared to their counterparts. Private schools are also more advantageous than public schools because they have good access to learning resources, there is no overcrowding and so on. This is lacking in the public schools. Thus, it is recommended for parents to their children to public schools if they are financially stable.

References

Devins, N. (1989). Public values, private schools. London: Falmer Press.

Murnane, R. J., Newstead, S., & Olsen, R. J. (1985). Comparing public and private schools: The puzzling role of selectivity bias. Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, 3(1), 23-35.