Private Values

A new Goldwater Institute study brief reports on a comparative survey of 1,350 Arizona students who attend either a public school or else a private school with a tax credit scholarship. The researchers wanted to find out which group of students showed a greater sense of civic responsibility, volunteered in their community more, and were more tolerant of diversity. They learned that the private school students were overwhelmingly better citizens. For example, when asked the question "People whose views I oppose should be allowed to live in my neighborhood", 79% of private school students agreed - versus 46.7% of public school students. When asked whether their school teaches them "to respect, value, and tolerate differences in others", 76% of private school students agreed - versus 51% of public school students. In terms of volunteering in the community, 44% of private school students had done so in the past year, versus 33% of public school students. These results suggest that there is no reason to believe that Arizona public schools are doing a better job at teaching civic virtues than they are at teaching academics.

Furthermore, it seems likely that this phenomenon is not confined to Arizona. That Canadian private schools do a good job of inclucating civic values is suggested by the fact that although the current Canadian prime minister was educated in public schools, the six prime ministers before him were educated in private schools. 

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