time to abolish private schools, page-24

Having a kid at one of those elitist private schools there is one very clear difference between public and private, aside from funding, teachers, various programs etc.

The difference is in the children themselves. Private school children on average (note the word average) are geared higher towards learning than those from public schools. Motivation levels are higher and a willingness to progress to a higher level is also greater. There are many reasons for this and I'm sure some of it does relate back to the school, however my personal thinking is that the cost of a private education is the main factor. Those parents paying well over 10k a year to put their children through school, mostly, have no desire for our money to be wasted. Often the children that are pulled out of private schools are those that are performing badly.

In my opinion the most driven student with the worst teacher will perform better than the best teacher teaching a student that doesn't want to learn. That drive is something I'm more than happy to pay for.