Private School vs Public School

 Do you think you got the best start in life? Did you end-up in a school that might haveresembled a zoo more than it felt like an institution of higher learning? Perhaps in the past, getting by without alot of pieces of paper to defend your intelligence may have been harder, given that nowadayswe can learn so much online and that many of the world’s leading and richest entrepreneursdropped out of university. Had they have dropped out of high school,that could have been a different matter, but many great minds have not been too keen onschool. One of those minds was Albert Einstein, whofamously said, “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learnedin school.” So does it matter where you go? That’s what we’ll find out today, in thisepisode of the Infographics Show, Private School vs. Public School.

 Don’t forget to subscribe and click thebell button so that you can be part of our Notification Squad. First of all, we should say that by “publicschool” we mean schools that are run by the government. This could be confusing for Brits as whenthey say public school, they are not thinking of schools run by the public sector, but selectiveinstitutions that demand private payment. Basically, private school as Americans knowit, is public school in the UK. It’s another case of that “my tom-ate-o”and your “tom-art-o”. We’ll base this show on the U.S

. today,as covering the globe’s schools would be impossible, and some of the things we willdiscuss are relevant globally. You might be surprised to know that in theUSA, according to the Council for American Private Education, there are 33,619 privateschools in the United States. There are around 5.1 million students enrolledin these schools.

 It’s said that private schools are hometo almost 10 percent of all school students in the U.S. The same source states that there are 441,496teachers working full-time in private schools. As much as 79 percent of these schools havea religious affiliation. The Washington Post reported in 2016 thatthese schools are “virtually all-white”, with non-white students only making up around10 percent of students across the country. As for public schools, according to the NationalCenter for Educational Statistics, 50.7 million public school students will be studying inone of them from prekindergarten to grade 12 in fall 2017. Teaching all those kids will be 3.2 millionfull-time teachers, which is a ratio of 16 students for every teacher. The ratio in private school is 12 studentsfor one teacher. One of the main differences of public schoolis the mixed ethnicity of students. Public schools in America are made up of 24.4million white kids, 13.6 million Hispanic students, 8.0 million black students, 2.8million Asian/Pacific Islander students, 0.5 million American Indian/Alaska Native students,and 1.5 million mixed race students. What about costs? Well, the government pays for public schools. In 2017-18 it’s projected that the budgetfor public schools will be $623.5 billion. This means that each student will cost onaverage $12,300. Taxes will pay for this. Private schools are a different matter, andthey are funded by tuition fees. Tuition costs will change depending on theschool. For the year 2017-18, the national averagefor private school tuition is $9,975 per year, which is $8,918 per year for elementary schoolingand $13,524 per year for high school.

The state of Vermont had the highest average,with high school being $31,543 per year on average. If you are looking for cheap private schooling,head to West Virginia where the average cost for high school is currently $5,262. We should add that a handful of private schoolscost around the $50,000 a year mark. So, what do you get for your money besidespretty gardens and obviously top-notch facilities at a private school, and perhaps metal detectorsand patrolling policemen in some wayward public schools? Well, when it comes to the syllabi, publicschools have to adhere to state standards while private schools have much more flexibility. This is seen as getting a better and morediverse education. The good news for not so wealthy people isthat high school graduation rates in public schools has gone up recently. It reached its highest during the Obama administrationin 2015 at 83.2 percent of students graduating. At the same time, 95 percent of private schoolstudents graduate. According to the website College Admission,just about all of those private school grads will attend a university, whereas only 49percent of public school graduates will enter further education at college. If you want to get into an Ivy League University,there’s no reason why you can’t get in after attending public school. Top Tier Admissions tells us that roughly25 percent of successful applicants to those top universities came from private schools,and 60-70 percent from public schools. The rest were homeschooled. Private school does work for a lot of people. The richest man in the world, Bill Gates,went to a private prep school…

but then he later dropped out of Harvard. On the other hand, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerbergwent to a public school. When researching for how private school graduatesout earn other kids in the future, most of the stories are about the UK and how private(or public) school there seems to create most of the UK’s millionaires. The U.S. playing field might be a bit morelevel, after all, Dr. Dre didn’t go to private school. It seems in the U.S. if you actually get touniversity, it might not matter where you studied in high school in terms of “makingit”. At the same time, studies have found thatbeing born with a silver spoon usually means you’ll be passing that spoon on, and poorerfolks with degrees don’t usually jump up a class. Your background makes all the difference. A college degree, says one report, is no greatequalizer. Why is this? “There are a host of possibilities, fromfamily resources during childhood and the place where one grew up, to the colleges thatlow-income students attend,” said the report. Then you have rich folks that dropped outof high school, such as the billionaire Tumblr founder David Karp, who dropped out of highschool at 15 years old. Joining him as a high school dropout is Facebook’sformer product manager Mike Hudack and filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. In light of the last person, success in thearts or sport probably is not related to if you went to public or private school, butif you want “social mobility” then it’s probably better your parents paid the cashfor your education. It also seems that the filmmaker is the onlyone of the three to have come from a humble background. You may have some unique skills, or be a naturalautodidact (learn by yourself), and so school doesn’t matter much even if you are poor. Nonetheless, we can’t ignore some statistics. The Bureau of Labor Statistics states thatpeople without a high school diploma will earn on average $25,636 per year if in full-timeemployment. 8 percent of high school dropouts are currentlyunemployed. If you have a high school diploma and nothingelse, the average wage is $35,256 per year with 5.4 percent of those people currentlyunemployed. If you have a bachelor’s degree, you mightearn an average of $59,124 per year. Only 2.8 percent of Americans with a bachelor’sdegree are unemployed, much less than the 4.4 percent of Americans currently out ofa job. In conclusion, it’s odds on that if youwent to private school then you most certainly went to university, and with some family wealthbehind you, it’s also pretty much a certainty you fell into one of these higher wage brackets. Then again, if you are brilliant, or spendmore time reading than scrolling, then it is likely nothing will hold you back. So, what do you think...is private schoolworth the extra dough, or is it all just a bunch of hoo-ey? Let us know in the comments! Also, be sure to check out our other videocalled Vegans vs Meat Eaters?! Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’tforget to like, share, and subscribe. See you next time!