Private schools are much more well-known and understood than charter schools, so I won’t spend that much time explaining what they are and how they work, but for more reading click here. Note: For the sake of this blog series I’m going to be talking about private schools and religiously affiliated private schools separately. So, let’s dive in.  

The Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman is quoted as saying that “If public schools are as good as people claim, they shouldn’t be afraid of competition”. Private schools operate outside of the public school system, and as such do not fall under the jurisdiction of the local school board, but rather the state department of education. People see private schools as competition for public schools, however, there is debate about whether this is a good thing. 

Many advocates of school choice back the idea that the free market should decide which schools are better for their children to attend. As such, some states began offering school voucher programs, with 18 states having school voucher programs today. The way that school vouchers work is that the tax revenue that would be put towards a student’s public education can be reallocated and diverted to paying for private school tuition upon a parent’s request. For more on how school vouchers work, watch this video.

Parents and advocates in favor of school vouchers claim there to be long-term economic benefits to this, as students who receive a better education are more likely to have a positive impact on the economy. However, many people against school choice say that there are negative social impacts of school vouchers.  

People argue that school vouchers harm already struggling schools. This is because when a child leaves a public-school system on a voucher in order to attend a school better suited to their needs, their per-student tax revenue follows them. Opponents of school choice claim that this decrease the budget of public schools, however, shouldn’t the tax revenue to educate youth to fulfill its purpose and educate that child rather than staying at their original school the child no longer attends? 

Another criticism of school vouchers and private schools is that private schools are often far less equipped to educate students with disabilities. Public schools are required to have resources or make resources available for students with disabilities; private schools are often unequipped with resources and staff trained for such students. However, parents have the option of school choice. If the public school a child attends has better services for them, they should stay there; if a private school seems like it would be a better fit or overall situation, that opportunity should be made available for them to take advantage of.  

Additionally, critics of school choice claim that it promotes socio-economic inequity and racism within education. Using D.C. as a sample, a study found that 15% of students from the district attended private schools, but they overwhelmingly enroll white students over their Latinx and Africa-American peers, with 60% of all white students from D.C. attending private schools. Alternatively, public schools were found to enroll 71% who identified as African American, 15% who identified as Latinx, and a mere 11% who identified as white. Charter schools, however, were found to have 85% of enrolled students identifying as African American, 10% identifying as Latinx, and 3% identifying as white. 

While private schools may seem to be leading the segregation of education, at least in D.C., school choice programs may be the solution to this problem. The largest barrier to accessibility for private schools is tuition. A study found that in D.C. socio-economic status fell along racial lines, with the median income almost three times as high for white families at $120,000 than African American families at $41,000. This may explain why charter schools had higher enrollment from people of color than private schools: they don’t charge tuition. 

So, if it’s not that families of color are seeking better educational opportunities for their children, the issue as access. School vouchers would decrease the barrier to entry for students of color, allowing them to get the education they are entitled to. In a city like D.C., this could also do a lot to combat income disparity, as education is a powerful indicator of future income.