Despite mounting layoffs on Wall Street and the broader economic downturn, private schools in New York City continue to thrive, with administrators and consultants saying this year has been the most competitive yet for admission to kindergarten. Some estimate that several hundred children were rejected from every place they applied.
All right, anti-public schoolers, I'm throwing down. In a vouchered or totally private schooled world, why wouldn't some students miss out all together. It was absolutely in the interest of the private schools to expand and take more students, or for more to start up, since demand clearly exceeded supply (and at $28,000 a year, you have to figure that this market is pretty insensitive to price). The schools couldn't admit everyone because they didn't have the foresight, resources, or infrastructure in place to expand. But when this happens to public schools, the government makes sure the extra kids still get to go to school.
Without comprehensive public school, either no one is responsible for the kids who get screwed when the actuaries misproject, or those kids get shunted off to a lower class of schools, the only ones who have to expand.
1 comment:
There's a really excellent write-up about this phenomenon in Alexandra Robbins's somewhat sketchy The Overachievers. Maybe it's just because I was in a public school until I discovered the wonder of private school financial aid/scholarships, but I really think the private school craze for kids before middle school--high school, even--is just unnecessary.
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