When it comes to where America’s parents send their children to school, public education wins hands down. As the following chart from Ed Choice shows, 83% of American students are enrolled in a public district school. Only 8% of students attend charter schools, only 5% attend private schools, and only 3% attend homeschool.
Granted, these numbers have changed a bit in the last few years since the Covid pandemic, but they still provide a decent reference point for where most American kids get their schooling.
Compare these numbers, however, to what parents prefer when it comes to schooling for their children. Private schools are the big winner, with 40% of parents preferring them, while 13% prefer charter schools and 10% prefer homeschool.
But the biggest takeaway from these numbers? Only 36% of parents would voluntarily choose public schools if they had the chance. In other words, nearly 50% of American parents are forced to send their children to public school against their wishes.
Why so much hate for the public schools?
Perhaps it’s because parents realize the low academic standards of public schools.
Perhaps it’s because parents realize that the public schools are full of poor behavior and little discipline.
Perhaps it’s because parents are worried that their children are not safe from gun violence in public schools.
Perhaps it’s because parents fear public school teachers will convince their children to transition to another gender…all while hiding these transitions from parents.
Or, perhaps it’s just because parents realize public schools want to send their children to the bottom, keeping them in ignorance and submission to the powers that be for the rest of their lives. Indeed, that’s exactly what author H. L. Mencken named as the goal of public education nearly 100 years ago:
The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States, whatever the pretensions of politicians, pedagogues and other such mountebanks…. [Emphasis added]
With that in mind, it’s a wonder that any American would want any child to stay in public schools. Indeed, those who truly care about children and want them to succeed will do everything they can to get them out of the mediocrity of the public education system.
—
Image Credit: Pixnio
