Why Parents Send Children to Private Schools



Parents will often to go great lengths to send their children to private schools instead of public ones. There are a number of reasons for it. In the end, most believe it is well worth the monetary investment needed to pay for private schooling. Some pay for the tuition out-of-pocket, while others secure private educational loans. There are usually a limited number of scholarships available, since funding for them is often limited. Students in kindergarten through 12th grade may attend the same school the whole time, while others attend private school only some of those years. Many of these schools limit attendance by the specific grade ranges they serve. As a result, parents may only send their children to private schools for a certain number of years. Oftentimes, however, children at a 1st through 8th grade facility will feed into the same high school. Regardless of how long the student is in a privately funded school, they can reap the many benefits of attending private educational institutions, even if it is only for a few years. Here are some of the reasons parents send their students to private schools.

  1. They are more likely to graduate from high school.

  2. There is a higher concentration on training in the arts, such as music, art and literature.

  3. Polls show that teachers in private schools are more likely to enjoy their jobs and the students that they teach.

  4. Schools with religious affiliations teach these principals and require their students to follow certain moral rules and standards. Public schools have no religious affiliation.

  5. They are more likely to graduate from college with a degree before the age of 25 than public school students.

  6. Parents who travel frequently or hold high political offices often send their children to boarding school to engrain a sense of stability and safety in their lives.

  7. Students wishing to pursue higher paying jobs may need additional academic training before reaching college.

  8. Private schools offer college preparatory classes, which teach better study habits and how to attain higher test scores.

  9. Children in public institutions are more likely to be victimized or assaulted by classmates.

  10. There are smaller class sizes and teacher to student ratios in privately funded schools.

  11. Students can learn among peers with the same academic, religious or ethnic backgrounds as they have.

  12. The presence of street gangs is nearly non-existent in non-public schools.

According to the Council for American Private Education (CAPE), there are more than 34,000 privately funded educational institutions for students in grades pre-kindergarten through 12. Regardless of the reason for choosing to send their children to these schools, parents continue to invest in their futures with the promise more sports and extracurricular activities, as well as academic excellence.