Public school a tragedy?

Sometimes you can only shake your head.

That would be a reasonable reaction to “Sorry, kids: It’s public school now,” an article by Shia Kapos in this week’s Crain’s Chicago Business.

Ms Kapos writes that elite Chicago area private schools are seeing an exodus of students this year, due to the economic downturn.

According to the article, some parents in the northern suburbs, who have been spending as much as $18,000 per year to send a student to a private school, have been reduced to sending their kids to (gasp) public school!

Read the whole thing here.

Among those interviewed was Maya, who had been a private school student until she entered Evanston Township High School as a freshman last year.

“I had been in a class that had 15 people, and now I’m in a class that has 30,” Maya says of her freshman year. “The learning abilities are so different with that amount of people — the teacher can’t challenge everyone and still teach others, too.

No school official is asked to comment, so readers will have to accept the judgment of a 15 year-old regarding the academic atmosphere at ETHS.

Maya had other observations that appeared in the story:

And, she says, students in the private school “seemed more sophisticated” in terms of dress.

“At my old school, the dress was more conservative. Some kids didn’t wear the same clothes twice. It was Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister,” she says. At her new school, the pants are sagging and the skirts are shorter.

Yes, just as in life, in a typical public school you will meet people who aren’t exactly like you. They might have a lot less money, dress differently and not always have well-known brand names on their clothing.

They might listen to different music and have interests not found in a student body comprised of kids whose parents are all college graduates (and the children of college graduates) and high earners.

Some of them might have problems at home, though the wealthy are not exempt from substance abuse and domestic problems.

But something of value can result, and often does, when children from a variety of economic and ethnic backgrounds are brought together in the public school setting. They learn from each other.

Apparently, that’s not nearly as good a story as one suggesting public school, in part because of its diversity, is a major step down for refugees from private schools.

I talked about the Crain’s article with the mother of two daughters who attend ETHS. She graduated from a private university and her husband is a graduate of Yale.

They can afford private school but, like many economically advantaged Americans, they choose to send their children to public school. They have high expectations for their kids and they believe Evanston’s public schools have given them a top quality education that is helping prepare the girls for the future.

They value the quality of education in public schools. They consider the diversity of the students a positive attribute.

The article made her angry. She said she knew it would make many of the parents she knows angry as well because they live in Evanston, which is a lot more like America than the private school from which Maya came.

Without question, some private schools have positive qualities. Just like public schools. And, like public schools, they have shortcomings as well.

Here’s the problem with the story. The takeaway message seems to be that no one would choose to send their children to public school. At least not if they love their kids and could afford private school. Any private school.

That’s inaccurate and insulting to all public school children, parents and school employees.

Crain’s should know better.