<p>It’s not just a matter of public vs. private. It still comes down to socio-economics. There are public schools that are at least as good as privates. But you either have to have enough money to live in the district for those schools, which is out of reach for the average person, or you have to have had the background to prepare you to test in to the most elite public high schools, which only have slots for a tiny % of students.</p>