“Public” education is akin to a religion in that many people accept the need for it on faith. We all want all children to get a good education, and that won’t happen without public schools, many people presume. But we also all know, at least when we reflect, that many students do not get a good education in public schools. We know that public schools, and even learning tracks within particular schools, vary radically by quality. We know that many kids do not progress as fast as they could, either because they are behind or ahead of others in a class.
What is public education, anyway? If we mean that all students go to assigned schools operated and funded by government, then we don’t have public education, not entirely. According to the Colorado Department of Education, public school enrollment for 2021–22 is 887,000 students (rounded). Of those, nearly two-hundred thousand attend “choice” charter, innovation, or online “public” schools. Over fifty thousand students attend private schools (as of 2019–20), while nearly sixteen thousand students officially homeschool (as of 2020–21). (Note: A lot of other “homeschoolers” officially attend a private “umbrella” school.)
The government part of it is essential to the definition. If a nonprofit organization or a wealthy person opened a school and invited every student in the neighborhood to attend, free of charge, we would call that a private school, not a “public” one, even though it’s open to the public.
See the full article by Ari Armstrong, August 23, 2022