There is no doubt that the events of the past seven months have made many parents reconsider the relative value of private and public education. In March, as most schools shut down in-person education because of the COVID-19 pandemic, private schools typically pivoted more quickly than public schools to provide quality online education to their students. This fall, private schools have proved more capable than many public schools of moving quickly to offer flexible, in-person, five-days-a-week education to their students. The upshot is that more parents are removing their children from public schools for the first time and enrolling them instead in private schools so they can continue to get the best possible education.
The relative success of private versus public schools in responding to the challenges of the pandemic adds another data point to the ongoing debate about whether public or private schools are more successful in delivering basic education to our nation’s children. But delivering a basic education is only one function of a good school. Schools don’t just convey academic knowledge to children; they also play a critical role in fashioning a child’s moral life, and the effects of this formation extend well beyond the classroom walls.
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