Of Course Private Schools Don't Admit Students with Expensive Special Needs

Okay, I'm sorry.

Nothing against private schools, nothing against Catholic schools, but people are trying to tell me over on Twitter that Catholic schools get better test scores for less money per student.

And you have to remember, private schools of all types generally do not have to admit all students.

Public schools Public schools can look at a kid and say, okay, this kid is going to cost this much to educate.

We're going to have to have this much extra staffing, these special services, and they have to do it.

A private school can look at that kid and say, sorry, we can't meet your needs or sorry, we can accept your student.

but you as the parent are going to have to individually pay for all the special services that your kid needs.

That's how a lot of private schools approach students with disabilities, if they accept them at all.

And you have to remember, selection effects are huge in education, and admission to private schools is almost entirely selective.

Schools that receive tuition from parents are selective about which students they admit and public schools generally are not with some exceptions but generally when you look at test scores between public and private schools they're not an apples to apples comparison because of selective admissions and because of the ability that private schools have to turn away students with disabilities so you can't look at the money and say oh how come catholic schools can do it cheaper they're doing a totally fundamentally different job because they are not at all serving that population of extremely expensive students.

And I saw one person say, well, it's not a $10,000 difference.

Like, yes it is.

Do you know how much it costs to give a student a one-on-one aid or to put them in a classroom that has six students, two aides, and one teacher?

It can be in the six figures per kid, per year.

And I guarantee you, unless there's some sort of state reimbursement program or federal reimbursement thing, which usually there is not, there is no way that a private school is just going to eat the cost of educating that child.

And that is what public schools do.

Public schools educate everyone.

Do we have room for improvement?

Does every student get the education they deserve?

Honestly, we do have a lot of improvement there.

But at the very least, we don't turn kids away.

We meet their needs.

And yes, that costs money.

Yes, it costs money to have extra staff.

Yes, it costs money to have extra support services.

Yes, it costs money to have school buses, including a bus that will go directly to the student's house and pick them up on a lift if they need to and have extra staff on the bus to keep everybody safe.

You know, there are lots of extra services that I think people aren't aware of, and those cost money, but they're necessary for educating all students.

So don't try to tell me that schools that practice selective admissions and turn away students with disabilities are doing this on the cheap.

And don't point to like the 1% of students with like slight dysgraphia or dyslexia or, you know, things that may be a barrier for a student, but don't actually cost more money.

Like don't make that out to be some sort of exception to what I'm saying.

Like, yes, there are private schools that accept students with disabilities, but not the really, really expensive ones.

And certainly not in the numbers that public schools do, which is 100%.

Let me know what you think.