http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2018/08/27/public-private-school-family-income-study
But is the family income effect due to correlation with parental educational attainment?
Dang! We could have saved ourselves a boatload of money on that useless private education. Where are these articles when you need them?
Re: #2
Isn’t your kid now in a public school at no cost to you, preparing for a government job? 
Yes – proving that that fancy private high school education was worthless. 
Yup, meanwhile my kid went to public school, private college and is ending up pretty much in the same place as ChoatieMom’s kid! (Different branch of the military.)
I wouldn’t assume that it’s family income that’s the key underlying causal factor. Family income is correlated with educational achievement, family “culture” and history (role models and connections within the family), as well as the ability to support good education for the kids.
Take things back a generation or two and you may see some patterns to the occupational foci, the education of parents and grandparents, and so on. These, rather than wealth or income, are likely to be most decisive to the life courses of the next generation. Here’s a highly selective illustration. My grandparents came to America 110-112 years ago. They had nothing. Just basic, primary education; they could read and write (but didn’t speak English), and they had some skills in working with tools, machinery, and animals. They were never wealthy. Their kids, however, were brought up to appreciate good education. They all earned college degrees in the 1930’s and 1940’s, and a couple of them earned advanced degrees (MS, PhD) in geology and other fields. My father earned a BS in engineering at UConn during the Great Depression. Before that he spent his first year at Brooklyn College, while he lived in the Y and had $1 a week for expenses. But his BS degree at UConn, and then a career in engineering allowed him to move solidly into middle class, and to make sure that all of his 5 kids got good college educations (UCLA, Reed, Caltech). And we all did well in our careers.
I would say it wasn’t money per se that made all this possible. It was ambition and values. My mom was salutatorian in high school though didn’t attend college. But she and my dad valued education and hard work. These values were passed on to the next generation. And we passed it on to our kids’ generation.
studies do for what certain people want to hear. the motive behind the study is against school voucher, keep every body in public school. Union may be behind the study.
I don’t disagree parents’ income can be a main factor. But it goes with other factors. Poor classroom order, stop discipline students because one or 2 races kid are disproportionately punished.Involvement of parents to kids’ education is also important. It is easier for higher income family than low income family but not absolute.
Parents should do what you like to do, Choose whatever school you feel best for the kids. ignore BS studies.
there are studies to tell high cholesterol people to take Statin. But also studies said it is waste of money to take Statin.
@ChoatieMom ,
it is a waste only when one get no results from private school. otherwise it is hard to compare.
when the benchmark is 0, you are sure there is better alternatives. When the benchmark is a > 0, no one can assume a is always < b in public school.
Why do you make think this–isn’t it just a raw assumption? But more to the point, it’s irrelevant–the study is weighing the benefits of private school and the benefits of family income, and private school has virtually no effect when separated from income:
It’s hard to parse your writing. What do you mean by this?
if the study environment (classroom) is distracting and school stop suspending problem kids, regardless of students family income, students just can’t learn in class.
@lemonlulu - what did you mean in the part about “one or 2 races kid”?
in some public schools, they stop discipline or suspending problem kids because most of those students come from 1 or 2 minority groups.
Something similar to injustice in criminal system in this country.
@lemonlulu - which races are those? what public schools? do you have any evidence for that seemingly racist assertion?
“In some public schools, they stop discipline or suspending problem kids because most of those students come from 1 or 2 minority groups.”
please cite collaborating evidence of this accusation.
I think lemon is trying to say that most kids who are suspended are black or brown (which is true- they are disproportionately suspended/expelled compared to white kids even once controlling for offenses committed) so schools are suspending those types of discipline programs.
They’re not actually suspending these programs- at least not on any mass scale- and I doubt very much that it has anything to do with the study above.
Now to the original thing- it’s been proven for decades that family income correlates with educational/life outcomes. I’m not sure what new this study is supposed to be showing.
Anecdotally, income at my private K-8 seemed to have no correlation with later life success. My class is that 1991 cohort and we came from apparently different incomes. Many of us were at this private (Catholic) school on scholarship or other discounts. Some of the poor kids are doing well, some aren’t. Some of the rich kids are doing well, some aren’t.
Of course, it’s a small sample size but it is interesting.
It’s showing that private school doesn’t seem to have any real outcome effect and that the data that shows it does falls apart when controlled for income. It’s a pretty large longitudinal study.
I don’t think this kind of question is answerable with correlation data . It is well known that housing preferences are influenced by schools, such that more affluent people can select to live in places with more resourced public schools. Obviously there also disparities among private schools. Higher income individuals can select pricier private schools. Very low income individuals can also select private schools, but they would tend to be low quality. In the end, one’s income determines ones school experience, whether it be private or public.
What kind of question, @psycholing ? I think the study’s conclusions are appropriately modest and narrow.