In my experience and talking with other parents it's often more nuanced than public vs private (or red vs blue). The best schools in our region are dominated by

In my experience and talking with other parents it's often more nuanced than public vs private (or red vs blue). The best schools in our region are dominated by wealthy suburban public schools, a few elite magnet public schools, and a few expensive ($60k+) private schools. Whereas the performance of the cheaper private schools and most charters don't seem to be substantially better or worse than the average public school. However, there are definitely a couple public school districts that entered into a death spiral and the parents fleeing those are what keep the mediocre private/charter schools in business. But if there's one thing I've learned is that parents rarely base their actual school choices on their politics -- the most left-wing liberals will send their kids to a private school and the most right-wing conservatives will send their kids to a public school if they think that's in the kids' best interest.