85% Of American Students Attend Public Schools

The chart above is from the Gallup Poll. The numbers are from polls done in August of each year from 2001 through 2017 of random national samples of 4,572 adults, with a 2 point margin of error.

It shows that about 85% of America's school children attend public schools -- while 9% attend private schools, 3% attend parochial (religious) schools, and 3% are home schooled. And I would submit that most of those attending public schools receive a very good education.

Sadly though, there are still some in this country who don't like public education. They want to pull money out of public school funding, and give it to private schools in the form of vouchers. They claim this would allow students to get a better education because they could choose what school they (or their parents) want to attend. I think that's a false argument, and one meant to damage our excellent public school system.

Vouchers to attend private schools would be great for rich and middle class parents. They would get a lot of the money they spend on private schools back. But it would not be good for poor and most working class families. Those vouchers do not cover all the cost of attending a private school, and those parents would not be able to pay the difference.

Vouchers would just take money away from our public schools, and would not help the students needing help now (those attending underperforming and underfunded schools). It would likely just create a two-tiered school system in this country -- one for the rich and middle class students, and another for the poor and working class and rural students (who would suffer from less funding for their schools).

And I doubt that education would improve anyway, since charter schools (publicly-funded private schools) have not proven to give any better an education than public schools.

There are a small number of public schools that struggle to give students a good education. We need to improve those schools -- not damage all public schools by taking money away from them to give to private schools.

There are those who say we can't afford to do that. That's a ridiculous lie. A voucher system would not be any cheaper in the long run than adequately funding all of our public schools. And if we can afford to wage endless and unnecessary wars, and give huge tax cuts to the rich and corporations, then we can afford to give all of our children an excellent (and free) public education.

We don't lack the money -- only the political will. And that is shameful.