Its very similar to higher education. The larger public schools can not only offer an education equal to private schools, in many cases there are more educational opportunities. Just look at the number of degrees you can pursue at UT vs. TCU.
The advantage that the private schools have is smaller class size that allows for a closer interaction between student and teacher. Because its smaller it can also be more nurturing. Sad to say but perhaps the biggest factor that leads parents to choose to pay for a private school education is safety and discipline - issues that are even more important when kids are younger. Kids that cause trouble in a private school don't stay around and that allows the rest of the kids grow and learn.
And lets be honest - in a lot of cases there is a definite "class" or "elitism" factor that enters into the decision.
I'm a huge proponent of school choice but the bottom line is there are kids that graduate from big city public schools that are every bit as smart and successful as private school honor students. As long as the schools are safe its often times more about what the kids (and their parents) make out of their opportunity - not where they find the opportunity.
Man, this post nails it 100%. Nearly 300 students are excelling at TCU under the Community Scholars program. None of them went to private schools. None of them even went to elite public schools. Just about all of them went to underperforming, inner-city public schools with overwhelmingly minority and underprivileged student enrollments. Schools that are not especially "safe" or "disciplined," and that don't offer a wealth of college-prep or advanced-placement programs.
The difference-maker for these Community Scholars wasn't the K-12 schools they attended, but the individual drive and determination to rise above their circumstances and make more of themselves than their family histories would have suggested is possible. What could be more thoroughly American than this "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" mentality? And in the face of greater social and financial obstacles than most middle-class Americans ever face?
The official TCU narrative is "The Community Scholars Program began in 2000 as an initiative by Chancellor Michael Ferrari to add diversity to the TCU campus." That statement is true as far as it goes, but doesn't come close to telling the whole story. The program was begun in 2000 under Chancellor Ferrari's sanction by Dr. Cornell Thomas, a professor in the College of Education and, at that time, his Special Assistant for Community & Diversity.
For several years, the program had no institutional support. It was funded entirely by external charitable grants, mainly from private foundations. For three years, Cornell and I went all over the place seeking grant support for this program. We even went to the Coca-Cola Foundation in Atlanta (they turned us down).
When Victor Boschini succeeded Michael Ferrari as Chancellor in 2003, he recognized the value of the program and that's when the institutional funding began. It wasn't a full-ride scholarship back then, it was a partial scholarship. The full-ride funding came with time as the budget line for the program was deliberately increased year by year. Cornell Thomas initiated the program with Chancellor Ferrari's blessing, but it was Chancellor Boschini's leadership that made it the success that it is today.
Today Cornell Thomas (once again on the faculty of the College of Education) oversees TCU's College Access program -- an initiative that employs TCU students to counsel mostly inner-city high school students on how to prepare for college. And not necessarily for college at TCU. College anywhere. In fact, the overwhelming majority of College Access students don't attend TCU. They mostly go to public universities. TCU offers this program strictly as a community service for the general good of human society.
The bottom line is that individual student drive and determination can count for as much in successful college attendance as a privileged education at any elite K-12 school. And parental influence is a huge factor in any individual student's drive and determination.
