Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Public school teachers vote with their feet by putting their own kids in private schools

Discussing the likelihood that the Obamas will put their kids in private schools (and asking whether they will make this option easier for other Americans by supporting school choice), University of Michigan economist Mark Perry points out, at his excellent blog Carpe Diem, the extent to which teachers are voting with their feet by putting their own kids in private schools:

This is not a new discovery. Data has shown this for years. The chart shows that a much greater percentage of school teachers put their children in private schools than do the general public. In other words, the people who know most about public schools seem to be the least likely to put their own children there.

5 comments:

One Brow said...

I don't suppose you have public school teachers versus other college-educated folk?

Oh, that would not be in your favor. No reason to expect you to publish that.

One Brow said...

I see you again failedd to check the link. Middle class teachers (42K-84K) are *more* likely to use public schools, and upper middle class (84K+) *much more* likely.

Martin Cothran said...

I see you again failedd to check the link. Middle class teachers (42K-84K) are *more* likely to use public schools, and upper middle class (84K+) *much more* likely.

How does this contradict what I said?

One Brow said...

Your original post said that "In other words, the people who know most about public schools seem to be the least likely to put their own children there." This is false. Among people with a college degree, public school t4eachers seem to be more likely to use public schools than their peers.

Anonymous said...

Echoing One Brow, the graph you show, Martin, is pretty useless. At the very least, some estimate of the statistical difference of the numbers shown needs to be given. For all we know, there is actually no meaningful difference between the values shown.

(I know, I know - it's not nice to let confusing things like facts and math get in the way of a good rant. Maybe someday conservatives can learn to pay attention in math classes, rather than pass this stuff off as some evil and Satanic hobby of them mean ol' elitist atheistic liberals.)