A common trend nowadays is the rising amount of students enrolling into private institutions. They do this because their parents believe that private education provides a superior level of education compared to the level of public education. While parents think private school is beneficial towards their child’s education, only 5 million students in the U.S. attend private institutions, which makes up about 10 percent of the total student population. Students and parents prefer private institutions for a variety of reasons; some traits of private institutions are integration with religious groups, single-sex oriented setting, and a flexible curriculum.

There are many advantages for attending private schools. Some parents want their children to have formal education with the addition of religious studies or worship in order to promote these values and morals. Since private schools are independently funded, parents must pay more tuition in order for their child to attend the school. For this reason, private schools often have more funding than public schools have.

Another benefit that parents desire for their child’s education is the reduced class sizes, which allows for a stronger connection between the teacher and the student. However, private schools do not necessarily have more benefits than what public schools have in that regard.

However, there are disadvantages with private schools. For example, private institutions create their curriculums to be just as rigorous or, in some cases, even easier than the typical high school rigor, so parents should research the curriculum of a private school before sending their child there. These classes are less informative and useful than those of public schools that are more responsible with their curriculum.

Within the public school system, there are other types of public schools. For example, in some areas, there are magnet schools that offer higher education standards. In contrast to private institutions, there are 50 million students enrolled in public school, which is a significant amount more than those enrolled in private. Nevertheless, public schools can have overcrowded classrooms, lack of amenities for the students, and encourage academic excellence less.

When viewing this discourse from micro-level, it appears that within our community, public schools are the dominant area for academic success and excellence. Private institutions within the Antelope Valley lack in their curriculum. They do not offer a wide selection of advanced level classes, and some of these institutions have a lower standard of education. From the perspective of an individual who lives the Antelope Valley, public schools offer many advanced level classes, and there many successful students from public institutions.Therefore, private schools are not necessarily better than public schools are.