Public schools as good as, if not better than, private

[Ghoulish Delight]

A study of math performance shows that public school students do no worse, and by some measure better, than public school students in math.

The study focused only on math because it's generally accepted that math is a subject that is learned largely at school and is less dependent on influence from home life than other subjects such as literacy.

"These data provide strong, longitudinal evidence that public schools are at least as effective as private schools in boosting student achievement," said researcher Christopher Lubienski of the University of Illinois.

...

This is important, he said, because many current reforms, such as No Child Left Behind, charter schools and vouchers for private schools, are based on the assumption that private schools offer better education than public schools.