Public education in America is rife with problems. Methodological, pedagogical, financial, and even teleological problems cripple the system America uses to educate its future leaders. Potential solutions to these problems vary from increases in funding to creation of voucher programs that allow public school students to enroll in private or charter schools. This bleak interpretation of America’s public schools seems to spell only doom and gloom for a system whose function is of the utmost importance. Mr. Pritchett is not alone in his belief that privatization can only help but improve America’s education system, but I find such an option unfeasible from both a logistical and financial standpoint.

All my life, I have attended private schools and many private schools suffer from the same problems public schools encounter. Funding is as much of an issue for private schools as it is for public schools. Stories of private neighborhood schools closing due to low enrollment or lack of funds are familiar narratives. Public schools may be grossly under-funded, but a simple flick of a politician’s pen can get rid of one of the more crippling inhibitors of public schools. Private schools, since they rely on private funding and do not have the luxury of their financial backers being able to literally print money, are actually less stable financially than public schools and are more prone to collapse when times turn rough.

Not all private schools approach education with the same pedagogy, and simply assuming that all forms of private schools cultivate independence and efficiency as Mr. Pritchett implies does little to advance the debate. Individuation and specialization is not the sole purview of private schools; even with the restrictions of No Child Left Behind, public schools can do many things that allow students to have an experience similar to what Mr. Pritchett experienced through most of his scholastic career. In fact, public education in America already has magnet schools that specialize in specific subjects such as art or science. The private schools I attended practiced a pedagogy that forced the Spanish translator to learn from the calculus instructor. The “waste” that Mr. Pritchett seems to be so categorically against has been part of my entire private school experience.

Mr. Pritchett’s anecdotal story about private education is effective only in a bubble; parallel stories can be found in people who only attended public schools throughout their scholastic careers and I am positive some of those people currently attend Hampden-Sydney College. Private education, while a quality education, is not always superior to public education and the switch that Mr. Pritchett suggests is an unnecessary step, because private school methodologies can be (and have been) applied to public education without switching to an entirely privately funded system. Public schools need to improve and in general, private education will give a student a better grounding for later in life, but the very thing that makes private education so attractive hinges on the fact that most private schools are selective. If students in America attended private schools, the same problems that plague public schools would also plague private schools.

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