As a group public school teachers are less likely to trust public schools

I mentioned last year that our blog is becoming an extension to my memory. I have started to take this for granted. Alasandra linked to an article that a public school teacher was opting for homeschooling her own children. I remembered that there had been a study which found public school teachers were twice as likely as the general public to put there children in private schools. I thought I had blogged about this. I dig around a bit in our blog and couldn’t find any mention, so I’m writing this post partly as an effort to extend my memory.

A 2005 report by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute found that public school teachers are more likely than the general public to put their children in private schools. This is from the report summary:

“Does it matter where public-school teachers send their own children to school? If so, how and why? What can we learn from them?
“What we are grappling with here is the question of connoisseurship. Stock analysts, for example, watch carefully when corporate directors buy or sell the stock of companies on whose boards they serve.
“Similarly, we can assume that no one knows the condition and quality of public schools better than teachers who work in them every day. If these teachers are more likely than the general public (which may not have nearly as much information or expertise in these matters) to send their own daughters and sons to the public schools in which they teach, it is a strong vote of confidence in those schools. If they do not, then we might reasonably conclude that those in the best position to know are signaling a strong "sell" about public education in their communities.”

The key point from the report is that public school teachers, which have the best understanding of the current state of public schools, are much less likely to trust the public schools.

Here is the full report.


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