Private Schools and Education Inequalities, Essay Example

The benefits of private schooling have been analyzed in detail by several authors. Ladd (2003), responding to Hoxby’s opinion (2003) regarding competition of schools and school choices in the United States. She states that the idea  Hoxby (2003) presents that competition is good for the U.S. education system is wrong. Indeed, she states that “competition from private schools may actually reduce achievement in the public schools.” (Ladd, 2003, p. 75). Apart from the debate about the impact of competition by private schools on public schools’ performance, the question to be analyzed below is: who benefits from private schools’ advantage and how the existence of these schools impacts social justice?

The author of the current article would like to indicate that indeed, the institution of private schools increases the achievement gap between children from high and low socio-economic background. A recent OECD report (2011) states that “schools that attract advantaged students are also more likely to attract better-performing students as well as greater resources” (p. 2). This results in a great difference in opportunities provided for well-off families’ students. On the other hand, the same report concludes that “the small performance difference between public and private school students that remains is associated with higher levels of autonomy over curricula and resources among private schools” (p. 2). This means that private schools are only performing better because their curricula is not as regulated as public schools, and the institutions have more money to spend on enhancing the curriculum. Focusing on the above statement, it is evident that primary and secondary education is far from being a level playing field, and stating that private schools are better, as the test results are higher would be wrong. Given the same level of autonomy and financial support, it is likely that public schools would be performing just as well.

Anderson (2007) states that the institution of private schools is an instrument of distributing and strengthening social inequalities. Therefore, taking into consideration the above statements and the findings of the OECD report (2011), it is evident that private schools are not only better in structure and quality of teaching, but unnecessary, harmful for the society, as they enhance social inequality within the U.S. population.

Works Cited

Anderson, E. (2007) Fair opportunity in education: A democratic equality perspective. Ethics 117 (July 2007): 595–622

Hoxby, C.M. (2003), School choice and school competition: Evidence from the United States. Swedish Economic Policy Review 10.

Ladd, H. (2003) Comment on Caroline M. Hoxby: School choice and school competition: Evidence from the United States. Swedish Economic Policy Review 10 (2003) 67-76

OECD (2011) Private schools: Who benefits? Pisa in Focus. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/pisainfocus/48482894.pdf