Hidden problems of private schools
- Private school teachers are less qualified, less educated and less experienced than public school teachers. They are often parents who have lost their day job, or nursery school teachers promoted beyond their experience.
- Private school standardized test scores (ERB) are not published. What are they hiding?
- Studies show private school students are much more likely to drop out of college than public school students.
- Private school class size is often larger than public school class size. Often classes are larger than the CA public school 20 student per class K-3 cap, especially in religious schools. Public schools have many more volunteers, including student teachers, in the classroom, reducing the published teacher/student ratio.
- Private schools have little sense of community. They tend to be drive-and-drop schools, not neighborhood schools.
- Private schools can close at will without public hearings.
- Private schools are often so far in debt their main focus is fund raising, not education.
- Private schools are racially homogenous, promoting ignorance about and prejudice toward other races
- Bullying is more of a problem in private than in public schools. Public schools have zero tolerance for bullying. Bullying by children whose parents contribute financially to the school is often tolerated in private schools.
- Private school problems are hidden from the general public as well as from families in the schools, unlike public school problems, which are always widely reported.
- Local newspapers accept advertising dollars from private schools, leading to a lack of journalistic integrity in school reporting.
