Teaching Conditions

Is It Better Teaching In A Private Or A Public School?

The Issue

Who has the better deal? A private school or a public school teacher? Let's consider the following:

• facilities
• class size
• salaries
• budgets
• administrative support

Facilities

Some public school facilities are impressive; others mediocre. The same is true of private schools. In the public school system, the twin engines of political support and economic revenue base are critical. In private schools the ability to attract endowments and other forms of financial support are just as critical. Private school facilities reflect the success of the school's development team and that of the school to continue to generate alumni support.

Class Size

Based solely on anecdotal evidence, I would say that the private schools win out on this issue.

Why? Because they are by charter organized to provide a more personal kind of education for their clientele. They are selective by design. Class sizes of 10-12 are the rule. Public systems have to take almost anyone who lives within their boundaries. In public schools you will generally find much higher class sizes, apparently as high as 35-40 students in some inner city schools. (We shall overlook the small classes commonly found in rural public schools.) Unfortunately, teaching rapidly degenerates into babysitting when classes get too large.

Salaries

Again, the evidence is anecdotal but the overall impression I have is that public schools salaries are generally higher, most probably as a result of unionization. Most private school faculty are not unionized. One private school benefit is that most boarding school faculty receive some form of housing and meals. This makes quite a difference especially if you are housing and feeding a family. I know that teacher pensions in the public sector are excellent. I suspect that private school teachers' pensions differ widely according to the resources of the institution. A friend of mine in Ontario, Canada was telling me recently of the excellent salaries and retirement benefits which exist in that province. The downside to that is that there is a glut of teachers pretty much throughout Canada, as young people have trained themselves for what has become a well-paid profession.

Budgets

Since local property taxes support the bulk of public education, the annual school budget exercise is a serious fiscal and political business. In poor communities or communities which have many voters living on fixed incomes, there is precious little room to respond to budget requests within the framework of projected tax revenue. Grants from foundations and the business community are essential to creative funding. Private schools on the other hand can raise tuition, and they also can raise significant amounts of money from a variety of development activities, including annual appeals, cultivation of alumni and alumnae, and solicitation of grants from foundations and corporations. The strong allegiance to private schools by their alumni makes the chances of fund-raising success a real possibility in most cases.

Administrative Support

The bigger the bureaucracy, the harder it is to get decisions made at all, much less quickly. So, private schools, which have a lean management structure, come out ahead in this regard. I have included this category, because it is one of those commonly overlooked factors in teaching job satisfaction. Let's face it, if you know something can be improved or changed for the better, but cannot get the support to institute that change, frustration quickly sets in.

Conclusion

Private schools win in every category except salaries.