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Opting Out of Private School
September 15,
2006; Page W1
 It's the lurking
fear of every private-school parent: The kid next door is
getting just as good an education at the public school -- free
of charge.
Ben and Courtney Nields of Norwalk , Conn. , agonized over
the issue last year when they moved their daughter Annie from
the New Canaan Country School , set on a 72-acre campus, to a
public school for first grade. The move was primarily economic
-- they have twins entering kindergarten this year and faced
tuition bills of $22,500 per child.
"It was like taking your child out of the Garden of Eden,"
says Mrs. Nields. But Annie thrived at the school. Her
confidence grew and the teacher, say the Nieldses, was
phenomenal.
Across the country, some schools and education
professionals report a growing movement from private to
public. Among the possible reasons: Private-school tuition has
grown sharply, while some colleges are boosting the number of
students they take from public schools. New studies have
suggested that public-school students often tested as well or
better than their private school peers. And increasingly,
public schools are enriching their programs by holding the
same kinds of fund-raisers often associated with private
schools, such as auctions and capital campaigns.
A select group of public schools say they're seeing a
growing share of new students coming from private schools. At
Highland Park High School in Dallas , 74% of the new students
came from private schools this fall, compared with 61% a year
ago. Over the past three years, the proportion has doubled at
Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville , Md. At Homestead
Elementary School in Centennial, Colo. , the number of kids
coming from private school tripled in the past year.
"It's a significant shift here," says Laurie Conlon,
guidance chairman at Cold Spring Harbor Junior/Senior High
School in Cold Spring Harbor , N.Y. This fall, all 17 of the
new entrants for grades eight through 12 are from private
schools, compared with five students last year. The school
scheduled its first-ever information sessions to help the
newcomers adjust.
Not all public schools are seeing these transfers:
Top-scoring schools in affluent areas tend to get the highest
influxes from private schools. In fact, the shift serves to
highlight the gap between well-funded schools and their
underfunded counterparts, often inner-city schools.
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![[Jonathan Thielman]](images/wsj091506_clip_image001.jpg)
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Jonathan Thielman at Jefferson County IB,
a public school in Birmingham , Ala. He switched from
private school last year. |
While the shift isn't reflected in recent national
aggregate statistics, a number of educational consultants and
academics interviewed say they're beginning to see more
parents opting in to public schools. "Most people agree
there's always been some movement between private and public
school," says Jeffrey Henig, a professor of political science
and education at Columbia University . "But lately there's
strong anecdotal evidence of frequent movement from private
schools to public schools. There are more choices for parents
now."
Interest in private schools shows signs of waning. The
number of private-school enrollments in kindergarten through
grade 12 increased at a slower rate than the number of
enrollments in public schools between 1989 and 2001, according
to the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for
Education Statistics. Last year, the approximately 1,200
schools that belong to the National Association for
Independent Schools received 8.5 inquiries for each student
who enrolled, down from 9.7 inquiries in the 1998-99 school
year. (The group has added more member schools in that
period.) While competition for admission in many areas of the
country remains intense, the percentage of students accepted
at member schools rose to 53.4% last year, from 49.7% in 1998.
Higher costs are a big factor in the switch. The median
tuition for private schools nationally was $16,970 in 2005-06,
up 16% from five years earlier. In some parts of the country,
tuition is now as high as $30,000 a year. Even as the number
of families able to easily shoulder full tuition continues to
rise -- in 2005, the number of households in the U.S. with a
net worth of $1 million or more rose 11%, to 8.3 million, over
the previous year, according to the Spectrem Group, a
wealth-research firm in Chicago -- the NAIS is warning member
schools that rising tuitions may cause some families to look
for alternatives. "The schools are getting some pushback they
haven't seen before," says NAIS President Pat Bassett.
The 9% rise in annual tuition, to $10,890 a student, at St.
Mary's Academy in Englewood , Colo. , prompted Elizabeth
Maloney to start researching the local elementary school. The
mother of five enrolled her kids at St. Mary's -- alma mater
of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- after moving to
the area last year. She didn't know much about the public
schools, and going private felt safer. "My kids had always
gone to private school," she says.
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![[Abbey Maloney]](images/wsj091506_clip_image002.jpg)
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Abbey Maloney at her old private school.
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But when Mrs. Maloney spoke with the principal at the
public school, she learned that it offered a similar
curriculum to St. Mary's, including identical vocabulary and
math programs. "I was blown away," she says. Plus, her kids
could walk or ride their bikes to school. Now, four of her
kids are there. Mrs. Maloney doesn't rule out a return; she
misses perks like the foreign language program and the extra
arts activities. Deirdre V. Cryor, the head of St. Mary's,
says what makes the school different is its strong values.
Beyond tuition, educational advisers say more parents are
worrying that the competition at private schools might hurt
their kids' chances of getting into a selective college. As
the number of applications reached record levels at some
colleges this year (at Harvard University, applications were
up 15% over 2005, with nearly 23,000 students competing for
about 1,650 slots in the freshman class) they fear the
colleges are placing quotas on how many kids they take from
each elite private school. Some also believe their child will
have a better chance of standing out at public school.
The College Connection
In our own sampling of 20 selective colleges, 11 had
slightly higher percentages of enrolled freshmen from public
schools in the class of 2010 compared with 2005. Five were
down, and four were roughly flat. At Dartmouth College , the
percentage of first-year students from public school grew to
66% this year, from 62% five years ago. Dean of Admissions
Karl Furstenberg says that though the change is subtle, it
reflects a growing applicant pool, as well as the school's
efforts to reach more students who might not have thought of
applying.
 "There's no point in spending all that money if
your kid is going to be in the middle of the class," says
Robert Shaw, a partner at IvySuccess, an educational
consulting firm in Garden City, N.Y. He counsels students to
consider switching if they aren't in the top 10%. However,
advisers note that some elite public schools -- such as
Edgemont High School in Scarsdale , N.Y. , or New Trier High
School in Winnetka , Ill. -- can be just as competitive.
Claire Straty, a 16-year-old in Dallas , hoped to leave
some of the pressure behind when she switched from the
Hockaday School , an independent college-preparatory school
for girls, to the public Highland Park High School . "If you
weren't brilliant you'd fall to the middle of the pack," she
says of Hockaday. "At Highland Park I felt I'd have a better
chance to stand out." She also thought she would have more
time for extracurriculars.
Her mother, Laurie-Jo Straty, had a hard time letting her
daughter leave Hockaday, which she believes is an
extraordinary school. Mrs. Straty also struggled with leaving
the community she'd developed with other parents there. But so
far, she's pleased. She recently received an email from
Claire's English teacher complimenting her daughter's
performance on a test, and Claire's Spanish teacher has been
coming to school early to help her catch up on language
requirements.
Two studies that came out in the past year showed that
public-school students often tested the same or better than
private-school students, after accounting for certain
socio-economic variables and background characteristics. One,
from the National Center for Education Statistics, compared
fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math scores in 2003 from
nearly 7,000 public schools and more than 530 private schools.
The results: Public-school fourth-graders did as well in
reading as the kids in private school and somewhat better in
math. In eighth grade, public-school children did the same in
math but somewhat worse in reading. A study from the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that looked at the
same data found similar results in the math scores. "It's
quite eye-opening for a lot of people," says Christopher
Lubienski, a professor of education who co-authored the
report.
Still, the studies are contentious: Harvard University
researchers came to the opposite conclusion after evaluating
the data with different methodology.
Kathy Allcock had other reasons for moving her daughter
Christy from an 830-student independent school in Portland ,
Ore. , to a 1,500-student public school for ninth grade last
year. Though Mrs. Allcock loved the smaller school -- she
still has her two younger children there -- she worried her
daughter would be academically but not socially prepared for
college.
At first, Christy objected. But she quickly grew to like
the greater number of people, clubs and activities. "I
realized how sheltered I was and how much I was missing," she
says. Initially scared that the teachers wouldn't help,
Christy has been surprised at the one-on-one time she's
received. She's now aiming for Stanford University , and
figures her experience in big classes is good preparation.
Some public schools are actively recruiting private-school
students. At Torrey Pines Elementary in La Jolla , Calif. ,
Principal Jim Solo began holding monthly tours and meetings
for private-school families four years ago. Many students had
left for private or charter schools. While he says it was not
a main motivator, having students return to the school
increased state funding, as the district is paid on a
per-pupil basis.
Mr. Solo has since led a charge to raise more private
funding -- $100,000 a year, mostly from parents -- to pay for
more teachers, and students' average test scores have grown.
The school gets 75% of its students from the neighborhood now,
compared with 50% four years ago. The rest come from out of
district.
Palm Desert High School in Palm Desert , Calif. , started
inviting parents and students from private schools to
information sessions three years ago. "I had a ton of friends
confiding in me their trepidation about moving from private to
public," says Jan Hawkins, a parent who arranged the events;
they said they had heard stories about impersonal teachers and
pranks like "trash canning" new freshmen. The percentage of
new students coming from private schools was 9% this year, up
from 6% three years ago.
Schools are also offering more Advanced Placement classes
to prove academic rigor. The number of all U.S. schools with
those classes has jumped 36% over the past decade, to over
15,000, according to the College Board, the nonprofit
association that administers the program. Nearly a quarter of
public-school seniors now take at least one Advanced Placement
exam in high school, up from 16% in 2000.
A range of Advanced Placement classes and other
college-level courses was one draw for Frank Thielman, a
divinity professor in Birmingham , Ala. , when he investigated
the local high schools for his son Jonathan. Mr. Thielman had
been hesitant at first, fearing inadequate funding and safety
issues. But after more research, he enrolled his son, who had
spent nine years at Briarwood Christian School , where tuition
this year would have run about $5,000. "It turns out we have a
very good academic option right here," says Mr. Thielman. Kids
coming from private school to Jefferson County IB have jumped
to 15% of new students from 7% three years ago, the school
says.
The image of public schools has been slowly evolving. In
the latest Phi Delta Kappa/ Gallup annual poll called the
Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools, 49% of
respondents gave their local schools a grade of A or B. The
number has steadily increased every year from the 36% recorded
in 1978.
Growing Options
Some attribute the shifting sentiment to students having
more choice in deciding which public school to attend --
whether it's charter, magnet or out of district. The
percentage of public-school students enrolled in a chosen
school was 15% in 1999, up from 11% in 1993, according to the
Department of Education.
Any movement toward public schools could be short-lived.
With the "baby bust" generation now following the baby
boomers, there will be fewer school-age children overall, and
public schools are forecast to have sharper declines in
enrollment growth nationwide than private schools through
2013.
Going from private to public isn't right for everyone, says
Steven Roy Goodman, an admissions strategist in Washington who
has had three clients switch to public schools in the past two
years. Transferring can be difficult emotionally and some kids
do better in smaller schools. Public schools have advantages,
he says, but usually can't offer classes that are as small.
The average student-teacher ratio in most public schools is
about 16 to 1, according to the Department of Education. At
NAIS schools, the average is about 9 to 1.
Parents should evaluate their children to see whether they
would thrive in a place with small classes or with more
extracurricular activities, consultants say. Learning
approaches can vary greatly from school to school and what may
work for one student may not for another.
After a tough eighth-grade year at the all-girl's Winsor
School in Boston , Maddie Pannell decided to try Weston High
School . The public school was renowned for its academics and
Maddie thought she might like a change. Her father, Saul
Pannell, an investment adviser, was opposed but agreed to let
her give it a try. The experiment lasted three weeks.
Maddie missed the teachers and students at Winsor and found
she preferred the private school's discussion-based method of
learning. "I didn't realize how important that was to me," she
says. The moral, says Mr. Pannell: "No situation is ideal."
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