Catholic Schools Perform Better than Public Schools
By Andrew J. Coulson
One of the first things you learn when you start to study the comparative performance of school systems is this: on average, Catholic schools are much more educationally effective and vastly more efficient than state-run schools. And then you learn that their impact goes beyond the three R’s. I wrote a little about these facts a few years ago, while I was with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, and my Mackinac friends have resurrected the post for Catholic Schools Week. I’ve appended an excerpt below, but you can read the whole thing here.
When state-run public schooling was first championed in Massachusetts in the early 1800s, it was under the banner of “the common school,” and it was touted more for its predicted social benefits than its impact on mathematical or literary skills. The leading common school reformer of the time, Horace Mann, promised, “Let the Common School be expanded to its capabilities, let it be worked with the efficiency of which it is susceptible, and nine tenths of the crimes in the penal code would become obsolete; the long catalogue of human ills would be abridged.”
Having experienced more than a century-and-a-half of a vigorously expanding public school system, Americans are no longer quite as sanguine about the institution’s capabilities. Nevertheless, there is still a widespread belief that government schools promote the common good in a way independent private schools never could.
Is that belief justified? Scores of researchers have compared the social characteristics and effects of public and private schooling. They have found little evidence of any public-sector advantage. On the contrary, private schools almost always demonstrate comparable or superior contributions to political tolerance, civic knowledge and civic engagement. One group of private schools stands out as particularly effective in this regard: those run by the Catholic Church.
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I agree with mr average and CRW. The other factor is the tuition. Most parents would rather send their kids to public school as it does not add to the money burden. Only when a family can afford housing, food and associated costs can they contemplate the private school.
Everything I do, I do it for you.
Any private school - catholic or otherwise - is likely to be "... more educationally effective and vastly more efficient than state-run schools." for one simple reason: private schools can be selective about the students the admit whereas public schools have to educate EVERYONE. Unlike public schools, private schools can expell kids if they're not performing adequately, are serious discipline problems, etc. They do not have to accept special needs students like the public schools do. Private schools do not have to beg funding from their towns in the form of tax revenues. They can rasie their tuition rates as needed. They also do not have to deal with teacher's unions and the assciated contracts which means they can pay their teachers less.
Comparing private schools to public schools is definitely an apples to oranges kind of comparison.
Yup... I went to Catholic school, and I saw kids expelled for things that would barely earn a detention in some public schools. In high school we had to be clean shaven with hair off the collar of our shirts, girls had strict uniform requirements, anyone could be fined for having food outside of the cafeteria, and struggling students could be forced to go to mandatory tutoring sessions if performance in a particular class was wanting. Students complied or were booted, which in no way reflects the reality of public school.
An interesting contrast would be to compare performance when adjusted for socioeconomic status *AND* parental involvement in education. I would suspect the measured advantages of catholic school would shrink significantly.