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The difference with private schools is the parents have a lot more clout, since they're paying the bills.

• masklinn 11y ago
  Everything below is just my experience of it (anecdotal) and nothing more but As far as I've seen parents have way more clout in public schools not only do they also pay the bills (via taxes) but public schools are part of the wider political systems (local politicians, local PTA equivalent) through which parents can reach the school and its administration with consequences. While parents do pay the bill in private schools said schools tend to consider the right to pay them a privilege (for the parents/pupil) and act accordingly with respect to complaints. And parents paying the school directly tend to dislike "seeing their investment wasted".
  • tsotha 11y ago
    That wasn't my experience at all. Where I grew up the teachers union controlled the school board. There really wasn't any counterbalance - the union was willing to finance candidates and nobody else was, so at most you would have one or two outsiders on a board comprised of people who put the bureaucracy before the parents. If your child was being treated badly you basically had no recourse unless enough other children were receiving the same treatment that it became a political issue. I can't remember a political issue that ever resulted in someone losing his job. Most people just don't care who's on the school board because they don't have kids in school. The private schools were different because the parents knew each other. If something bad was happening word spread quickly, and parents who were paying thousands of dollars to provide their kids a better experience than public schools would yank them in a heartbeat if it looked like their money was wasted.