Compare And Contrast Between Public And Private Schools

Introduction

Learning institutions have the fundamental role of providing students with adequate knowledge and skills that enable them to succeed in the outside world. However, parents have the option of taking their children to public or private schools based on the financial capabilities and interests. Apparently, there are numerous similarities and differences between public and private schools. This paper pays high attention to the analysis of the similarities and differences between public schools and private schools.

Similarities between public and private schools

Both public and private schools have set a specific number of credits in core subjects such as mathematics and sciences, for grading the performance of students. Moreover, students are informed about the number of credits that they are supposed to complete in order to graduate (Robert 2014). Consecutively, both public and private schools have established rules and regulations that used to control the behavior of students and teachers. For example, students are informed of the expected codes of conduct, such as how to relate with teaching staffs and each other, and offences that can led any of them to be suspended or expelled by the school administration.

Differences between public and private schools

There are numerous differences between private and public schools. For example, private schools have the freedom of admitting selected number of students, based on their academic capabilities or the religion. On the other hand, public schools do not have the freedom of admitting certain students, but instead, they are required to enroll all students regardless of their cultural backgrounds, academic qualifications, and religious creed among other factors (Robert 2014). Precisely, public schools are mandated to enroll students from different cultures and backgrounds as a way of curbing ethnicity.

Consecutively, private schools have to raise their own funds in order to ensure smooth running of their operations. In most cases, private schools get funds from fundraising events, borrowing from donors, and tuition fees from students. In contrast, funding for public schools is a threefold process. For example, the federal government allocates certain amounts of education funds to all states. The states then allocate additional funds through property taxes, income taxes and lotteries (Grace 2014). Additionally, public schools acquire amounts of money through conducting fundraising events.

Moreover, teachers in public schools are required to be certified by States in which they teach, and these certifications are granted when statutory requirements such as teaching practice and education causes have been met by the teachers (Grace 2014). Moreover, these certificates are valid within a set number of years, and thus must be renewed once they expire. In contrast, most private school teachers are not obliged to have teaching certificates in order to teach.

In addition, private schools have small sizes of classes, and a small number of students per class (usually 10 to 15 students) compared to public schools. This made private school have lower teacher-students ratio, and this enhances personalized interaction between teachers and students, making these schools perform better than public schools. Public schools have large class sizes that accommodate a high number of students, usually 30 students per elementary classroom. This makes these schools have a large student to teacher ratio (Grace 2014).

Conclusion

It is, therefore, evident that there are numerous similarities and differences in both public and private schools. However, since the ultimate aim of these schools is to facilitate academic excellence to the students, it is more encouraging for parents to take their students to private schools, as they perform better than public schools.

Work cited

Grace Chen: evaluating public schools versus private schools. Updated on February 11, 2014. Retrieved from, http://www.publicschoolreview.com/articles/5

Robert Kennedy: comparison of private and public schools. Retrieved on 29^th November 2014, from: http://privateschool.about.com/od/choosingaschool/qt/comparison.htm