The debate about which are better between private and public schools is not about to go away anytime soon. In fact, it has been argued that the top rated private schools perform better than public schools. So exactly how true is this? According to studies conducted over the past few years, there is a common belief that students in private schools perform better. This makes perfect sense since parents who take their children to private schools do so in search of better performance. Currently, 25% of schools in the U.S are private schools. This means that three quarters of schools are public institutions which would ideally mean more students are in public institutions. Depending on which side of the divide is, the argument on which is better depends on you. So what are some of the advantages of attending top rated private schools?

High Discipline Levels
Getting into the best middle schools or the best preschools means a thorough scrutiny and vetting of the students wishing to join these schools. Since it is easier to manage a smaller student population, the level of discipline in private schools is exemplary. Diversity in public institutions in the U.S for example has often been blamed for poor performance with policy makers citing lack of proper enforcement guidelines in public institutions. According to recent statistics, 21% of public school teachers have cited student apathy as being one of the greatest challenges in their institutions. This can be compared with only 4% of top rated private schools teachers reporting the same problem. The detriment of public schools on this issue is that they are publicly funded from the taxpayers. This means that public learning institutions are not at liberty to deny any student the privilege of joining the schools-something that private schools have control of.

Academic Performance
Parents often face a huge dilemma on which school to enroll their children. The situation is made worse by the fact that comparing hard data about performance between the top rated private schools and public schools can be confusing as it can get. Though private schools are not necessarily required by law to release data about their classes like public schools do, it may not come as a surprise that parents seek the best private education for their children because of performance. Fewer people trust the public school system to prepare their children for an increasingly complicated world. Student-teacher ratio has also been cited as one of the factors that influence student performance in learning institutions. Since most public institutions of learning have a lower student-teacher ratio, this imbalance has an effect on performance. Essentially, this means that access to teachers is more limited in public schools than in the top rated private schools.

Academic Environment and Scope of Teaching
This factor depends with how you approach the education policies in the U.S. There are those who would argue that diversity in public schools is to the detriment of student performance. This argument is based on another fallacy that bright students in public institutions with a desire to learn are held back by those who have no desire to study. There is a counterargument however that diversity is in fact beneficial in preparing students for the life outside school. Whereas a high diversified population could be indeed a beneficial thing in relation to social interactions outside the learning environment, the same can be counterproductive when it comes to offering a conducive learning environment. For starters, public schools are under the control of state governments whereas the management of top rated private schools is under the management appointed by the proprietors. Decision-making processes in private schools are therefore without the bureaucratic red-tape that characterized public institutions. The academic curricular in public schools is also set as prescribed by the government regardless of whether it is effective or not. This means that public school teachers lack the autonomy to teach outside the scope set by the government.