Compare and Contrast

 Nancy Silva Buezo

Reading and Writing

Compare and Contrast Paper

Private or Public Education

            A debate has been going on for a extended period of time concerning the sufficiency of private and public education. ¨ When it comes to schooling, parents often have to work out whether to send their children to private school or keep them in public school.¨ (Chen, 2015) A decision is not easy to make, especially if is regarding education. Every parent wants what is best for their child, that is why when it comes to making a decision, the matter presented should not be taken lightly or hastily. However, there are some important factors such as cost, academic reputation, and teacher quality that should be thoroughly scrutinized before making a decision.

            ¨ The most obvious discrepancy between public and private schools comes down to cold, hard cash. ¨ (GreatSchools Staff, 2016)Public schools are government funded and thus, must be available to everyone who wishes to attend and no fee is ever paid. But, it is not as easy as it sounds. Because public schools are government ran, they are often underfunded and they operations influenced by political winds and shortfalls. Financed mainly through local taxes, public schools are part of a larger school system, which functions as a part of the government and must follow the rules and regulations set by politicians. Contrary to public schools, private schools do charge tuition – a very high one. Private schools must generate their own source of income which can be done through anarray of sources. Private schools have their own agenda, they are in control of their institutions, and don´t comply to any government imposition.

            In general, public schools have a quite scandalous bad reputation regarding standardized testing. Now, something that is mind-bottling is that this phenomenon can be seen in many public schools worldwide. In defense of public education, I must say that in many cases, public school students score twice as high in the standardized test than their peers. On the other hand, private school students are getting the highest scores on standardize test. The reason for this can be the fact that private schools have the freedom to develop their own curriculum and focus on specific purposes.  ¨ Public schools must follow state guidelines that set out specific standards and assessment procedures. In theory, this creates a certain amount of quality control. Private schools, on the other hand, can choose whatever curriculum and assessment model they wish. This freedom to design their own curriculum or avoid standardized tests can result in higher standards for students — or lower. ¨ (Dynarski, 2014)

            While most people assume that teachers at private schools are as qualified as those at public ones, it’s important to note that all teachers in a public school are usually certified or, at a minimum, working toward certification. Certification ensures that a teacher has gone through the training required by the country, which includes student teaching and course work. Teachers in private schools may not be required to have certification. Instead, they often have subject-area expertise and an undergraduate or graduate degree in the subject they teach.Surprisingly though, the most qualified teachers are the ones that are slacking off and in addition giving public schools a bad name. In Honduras, public school teachers are not properly supervised and in many cases are not even showing up to work or simply attend the class to be seem but are not teaching the students.

            Finally, it is not about whether private education is better than public or the other way around. Even if it seems that one of the contenders is in the lead. Instead of comparing a type of school or education with the other, efforts should be made to try to repair what is in general affecting education. As was shown, both private and public education have their pros and cons. Public educators could learn from private educators just like private ones could learn from public ones. Nelson Mandela once said that education is the most powerful weapon which one can use to change the world, albeit public or public education. In the long run, education has to be about the changes that can be made to make this world a better place.