Are Public Schools Better Than Private Schools?

Private schools are widely regarded to be better than public schools, as the classes are smaller, students get more attention, and the teachers are supposedly better. This may be true generally, but it certainly is not 100% of the time. In my experience, public schools are better than private schools, based on my own experiences and on what I have observed.

I went to a Jewish private school for elementary and middle school, while for high school, I went to a public school. In my memory, the private school was horrible, and although it did provide me with a fair amount of memorable stories and a basic education, it lacked in everything else. For one, the administration was severely screwed up, as the school lost an assistant principal and even the main principal for unknown reasons in the same year (even now I do not know). I remember when the principal of the school announced she was leaving, and (I remember this especially distinctively) me feeling absolutely no emotion whatsoever. Some other people were mildly affected, but the majority of people did not care much (although we pretended to, in order to fake our way out of class). Anyways, next, the education was not very good. We spent a lot of unnecessary time on Judaic and Hebrew studies, and the only department where I really learned anything was science. For junior high math, my class learned very little, which left us unprepared for high school math.

One thing I found incredibly odd was the school's security system. To get into the main building, you had to type in a four digit code. This prevented any unwanted visitors from getting in. However, they would not tell the code to students; we could only get in if a teacher was there (at least until they instituted an intercom system). They told us we could not know the code because we might tell somebody dangerous who would come in and kidnap or murder us or something. Just think about how stupid that is, and these are full-grown, mentally stable adults who came up with this; that the own students could not know the code to get in because we would tell a dangerous person. If we were caught entering the code, we were severely punished. There were a number of other small, stupid things like this that made the school subpar, and they added up.

On the other hand, my public high school was great. Although it was a little dirtier, and did not have air conditioning (I did not mind either), the education was excellent, and there were a multitude of clubs and sports to pick from. The best part was the education, as the teachers got right down to business and we moved pretty quickly. I never had a teacher I disliked, not even a little, and I learned a lot then that I still put to use now. I am not the only one who has realized this. Here is a quote from my friend's father that perfectly exemplifies my feelings:

"It cost $10,000 a year, and I sent both my kids there for eight years, so that is $160,000 down the drain. We did not get nothing out of that school that we would not have got from a public school."

Technically, that last part is not true, since there would have been no religion in public schools (he wanted religion). I see not having religion as a huge benefit, since I see religion as a waste of time and something that should not be in schools at all.

As you can see, some public schools are indeed better than private schools. I will not deny that many "F" public schools exist, or that all public schools are better than private schools, but I have no doubt there are hundreds of private schools out there which are well below the level of a good public school.