Bloodless Coup

The Sad State of Public Schools

Oh, my bad, I mean, of private, conservative schools :

Students in private schools typically score higher than those in public schools, a finding confirmed in the study. The report then dug deeper to compare students of like racial, economic and social backgrounds. When it did that, the private school advantage disappeared in all areas except eighth-grade reading.

The report separated private schools by type and found that among private school students, those in Lutheran schools performed best, while those in conservative Christian schools did worst.

In eighth-grade reading, children in conservative Christian schools scored no better than comparable children in public schools.

In eighth-grade math, children in Lutheran schools scored significantly better than children in public schools, but those in conservative Christian schools fared worse.

OK, I just picked a provocative section. We'll pore through the data in the morning, and see what the whole report says. My inclination is that it isn't a condemnation of private schools as being terrible for kids, but that what it does show is that public and private schools both do about the same. Which means, all the hubbub about vouchers and what not isn't about quality education, but ideology.

Not that any of us saw that coming.