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A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their financial endowment. Unless privately owned they typically have a board of governors and have a system of governance that ensures their independent operation.
Private schools retain the right to select their and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students for Tuition payments, rather than relying on taxation through public (government) funding; at some private schools students may be eligible for a scholarship, lowering this tuition fee, dependent on a student's talents or abilities (e.g., sports scholarship, art scholarship, academic scholarship), need for financial aid, or tax credit scholarships that might be available. Roughly one in 10 U.S. families have chosen to enroll their children in private school for the past century.
Some private schools are associated with a particular religious denomination or religion, such as Catholic Church, various branches of Protestantism or Judaism. Although private schools may have a religious affiliation, the precise use of the term excludes Parochial school (and other) schools if there is a financial dependence upon, or governance subordinate to, outside (religious) organizations. These definitions generally apply equally to both primary and secondary education.
The secondary level includes university-preparatory schools, , and . Tuition at private secondary schools varies from school to school and depends on many factors, including the school's location, the willingness of parents to pay, peer tuitions, and the school's financial endowment. Some private schools are boarding schools, and many military academy are privately owned or operated as well.
Religiously affiliated and denominational schools form a subcategory of private schools. Some such schools teach religious education, together with the usual academic subjects, to impress their particular faith's beliefs and traditions in the students who attend. Others use the denomination as a general label to describe what the founders based their belief, while still maintaining a fine distinction between academics and religion. They include , a term which is often used to denote Roman Catholic schools. Other religious groups represented in the K–12 private education sector include Protestants, Jews, Muslims, and Orthodox Christians.
Many educational alternatives, such as private schools or Online school, are privately financed. Private schools often avoid some state regulations, although in the name of educational quality, most comply with regulations relating to the educational content of classes. Religious private schools often add religious instruction to the courses provided by local public schools.
Special assistance schools aim to improve the lives of their students by providing services tailored to the particular needs of individual students. Such schools include schools and schools to assist the learning of disabled children.
Australia has one of the most privatised education systems in the world with 30 per cent of primary students and more than 40 per cent of secondary students attending private schools. In contrast the OECD average is 18 per cent. Catholic schools make up a sizeable proportion of total enrolment (nearly 15%) and are usually regarded as a school sector of their own within the broad category of private schools, often charging lower fees than Protestant private schools. Enrolment in non-government schools have been growing steadily at the expense of enrolments in government schools, which have seen their enrolment share reduce from 78.1 percent to 65 percent since 1970, although the rate of growth of private schools has slowed in the later years.
Australian private schools differ from those in other OECD nations as the Australian Government provides funding to all schools including private schools. In 2013, after release of the (first) Gonski Report, the funding formula was changed to compute individual school funding compared to a School Resourcing Standard (SRS). The SRS uses exam results from the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy tests, calculates the SRS from a cohort of well-performing schools, and applies this formula to other schools on the assumption that they should be able to achieve similar results from similar funding. The funding provided to private schools is on a sliding scale and still has a "capacity to pay" element; however, on average, funding granted to the private school sector is 40 percent of that required to operate government schools, the remainder being made up by tuition fees and donations from parents. The majority of the funding comes from the Commonwealth Government, while the state and territory governments provide about one-third of the Commonwealth amount. The Turnbull government commissioned Gonski in 2017 to chair the independent Review to Achieve Educational Excellence in Australian Schools, commonly called Gonski 2.0. The government published the report on 30 April 2018.
Following negotiation, bilateral agreements between the Commonwealth of Australia with each state and territory commenced on 1 January 2019, with the exception of Victoria, whose bilateral agreement commenced on 1 February 2019. The funding agreements provide states with funding for government schools (20 percent) and non-government schools (80 percent) taking into consideration annual changes in enrolment numbers, indexation and student or school characteristics. A National School Resourcing Board was charged with the responsibility of independently reviewing each state's compliance with the funding agreement(s).
Private school fees can vary from under $100 per month to $2,000 and upwards, depending on the student's year level, the school's size, and the socio-economics of the school community. In late 2018 it was reported the most expensive private schools (such as AAGPS and CAS schools in New South Wales, GPS and QGSSSA schools in Queensland, AGSV and APS schools in Victoria) charge fees of up to $500,000 for thirteen years of education. The oldest private school in Australia is The King’s School, founded in 1831.
Catholic schools form the second-largest sector after government schools, with around 21% of secondary enrolments. Catholic schools, typically have a strong religious focus and usually most of the staff and students are Catholic. The National Education Directory Australia: Private Schools in Australia (accessed:07-08-2007)
In 2018, private schools accounted for 3% of basic education institutions and 9% of upper secondary education institutions. All Universities of Applied Sciences are either privately owned or municipality-owned companies or foundations. Some private Universities in Finland operate without legal mandate and are not overseen by the Ministry of Education and Culture. Graduates from these universities must undergo the same verification process as those holding foreign degrees.
At the primary and secondary level, India has a large private school system complementing the government run schools, with 29% of students receiving private education in the 6 to 14 age group. Certain post-secondary technical schools are also private. The private education market in India had a revenue of US$450 million in 2008, but is projected to be a US$40 billion market. Although there are private schools in India, they are highly regulated in terms of what they can teach, in what form they can operate (must be a non-profit to run any accredited educational institution) and all the other aspects of the operation. Hence, the differentiation between government schools and private schools can be misleading.
The single fee-charging secondary school in Ireland which receives no state funding, the Nord Anglia International School Dublin, does not have to undergo the state supervision which all the other fee-charging schools undergo. Students there also sit the International Baccalaureate rather than the Irish Leaving Certificate which every other Irish secondary school student sits. In exchange, however, Nord Anglia students pay some €25,000 per annum in fees, compared to c. €4,000 – €8,000 per annum fees by students in all other fee-charging Irish schools. Many fee-charging schools in Ireland also double as boarding schools. The fees for these may then rise up to €25,000 per year. All the state-subsidised fee-charging schools are run by a religious order, e.g., the Society of Jesus or Congregation of Christian Brothers, etc. The major private schools being Blackrock College, Clongowes Wood College, Castleknock College, Belvedere College, Gonzaga College and Terenure College. There are also a few fee-charging international schools in Ireland, including a French school, a Japanese school and a German school.
Being private schools, Chinese independent high schools do not receive consistent funding from the Malaysian government, although they did receive some funding from some state governments as well as in the 2019 and 2020 budgets under the Pakatan Harapan government. However, in accordance with their aim of providing affordable education to all in the Chinese language, their school fees are substantially lower than those of most other private schools. The schools are kept alive almost exclusively by donations from the public.
Private schools are almost fully funded by tuition fees paid by students' parents, but they do receive some government subsidies. Private schools are popular for academic and sporting performance, prestige, exclusivity and old boys/girls networks; however, many state-integrated schools and some prestigious single-sex state schools, such as Auckland Grammar School and Wellington College, are actively competitive with private schools in academic and sporting achievement, history and character.
Private schools are often Anglican, such as King's College and Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland, St Paul's Collegiate School in Hamilton, St Peter's School in Cambridge, Samuel Marsden Collegiate School in Wellington, and Christ's College and St Margaret's College in Christchurch; or Presbyterian, such as Saint Kentigern College and St Cuthbert's College in Auckland, Scots College and Queen Margaret College in Wellington, and St Andrew's College and Rangi Ruru Girls' School in Christchurch. However, the Catholic schism, the Society of St Pius X in Wanganui operates three private schools (including the secondary school, St Dominic's College). A recent group of private schools run as a business has been formed by Academic Colleges Group; with schools throughout Auckland, including ACG Senior College in Auckland's CBD, ACG Parnell College in Parnell, and international school ACG New Zealand International College.
The Fund for Assistance to Private Education (FAPE) is a perpetual trust fund for private education created by Executive Order № 156 1968 and amended by Executive Order № 150 1994. FAPE was created on November 5, 1968 by Executive Order No. 156, in implementation of the project agreement between the Philippine and United States governments to establish a permanent trust fund that would address the needs of the private education sector in the country.
In the final years of the apartheid era, parents at white government schools were given the option to convert to a "semi-private" form called Model C, and many of these schools changed their admissions policies to accept children classified to be of other races. These schools tend to produce better academic results than government schools formerly reserved for other "race groups". Former "Model C" schools are state-controlled, not private. All schools in South Africa (including both independent and public schools) have the right to set compulsory school fees, and formerly model C schools tend to set much higher school fees than other public schools.
According to The Good Schools Guide about 7% of children being educated in the United Kingdom are at fee-charging schools at GCSE level and 13% at A-level. Some independent schools are single-sex, although this is becoming less common. In 2011, fees range from under £3,000 to £21,000 and above per year for day pupils, rising to over £27,000 per year for boarders. Costs differ in Scotland.
One in four independently educated children come from postcodes with the national average income or below, and one in three receive assistance with school fees. Evidence from a major longitudinal study suggests that British independent schools provide advantages in educational attainment and access to top universities.Sullivan, A., Parsons, S., Wiggins, R., Heath, A., & Green, F. (2014). Social origins, school type and higher education destinations. Oxford Review of Education, 40(6), 739–763.Sullivan, A., Parsons, S., Green, F., Wiggins, R. D., & Ploubidis, G. (2017). The path from social origins to top jobs: social reproduction via education. The British journal of sociology.
There are many old, world-renowned institutions in England that served as inspiration for most schools of their type abroad. These schools include Winchester College, Eton College, St Paul's School, Harrow School, Westminster School, Charterhouse School and Rugby School. The Independent Schools Inspectorate regularly publishes reports on the quality of education in all independent schools.
Scottish independent schools currently educate over 31,000 students and employ approximately 3,500 teachers. Schools are represented by the Scottish Council of Independent Schools (SCIS). All schools are still inspected by the state inspectorate, Education Scotland, and the Care Inspectorate. Independent schools in Scotland that are charities are subject to a specific test from the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, designed to demonstrate the public benefit the schools provide.
]] In the United States, a private school is any for which the facilities and funding are not provided by the federal, state or local government, or in the case of charter schools, independently with government funding and regulation (as opposed to a public school, which is operated by the government). A majority of private schools in the United States are operated by religious institutions and organizations. In practice, the term "private school" is commonly used to denote a non-sectarian school, whereas "church school", "Christian school", and (for Catholic institutions) "parochial school" are used to denote sectarian ones.
Independent schools in the United States educate around 10% of the entire school-age population.
The essential distinction between independent schools and other private schools is self-governance and financial independence. In contrast, public schools are funded and governed by local and state governments, and most parochial schools are owned, governed, and financed by religious institutions such as a diocese or parish. Independent schools may be affiliated with a particular religion or denomination; however, unlike parochial schools, independent schools are self-owned and governed by independent boards of trustees. While independent schools are not subject to significant government oversight or regulation, they are accredited by the same six regional accreditation agencies that accredit public schools. The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) is a membership organization of American pre-college independent schools. Membership, NAIS website, accessed October 6, 2010
The NAIS provides this definition of an independent school: How do you define independent school? What is the definition of independent school? Retrieved June 23, 2018.
Independent schools are 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporate entities, independent in governance and finance, meaning:
- Independent schools "own themselves" (as opposed to public schools owned by the government or parochial schools owned by the church) and govern themselves, typically with a self-perpetuating board of trustees that performs fiduciary duties of oversight and strategic duties of funding and setting the direction and vision of the enterprise, and by delegating day to day operations entirely to the head of school.
- Independent schools finance themselves (as opposed to public schools funded through the government and parochial schools subsidized by the church), largely through charging tuition, fund raising, and income from endowment.
Independence is the unique characteristic of this segment of the education industry, offering schools four freedoms that contribute to their success: the freedom to define their own unique missions; the freedom to admit and keep only those students well-matched to the mission; the freedom to define the qualifications for high quality teachers; and the freedom to determine on their own what to teach and how to assess student achievement and progress.
In the United States, the membership organization for independent tertiary education institutions is the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. Private schools are generally exempt from most educational regulations at the Federal level but are highly regulated at the state level. These typically require them to follow the spirit of regulations concerning the content of courses in an attempt to provide a level of education equal to or better than that available in public schools.
In the nineteenth century, as a response to the perceived domination of the public school systems by Protestant political and religious ideas, many Catholic Church parish churches, dioceses and religious orders established schools, which operate entirely without government funding. For many years, the vast majority of private schools in the United States were Catholic schools.
In many parts of the United States, after the 1954 decision in the landmark court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that demanded United States schools desegregation "with all deliberate speed", local families organized a wave of private "Christian academies". In much of the U.S. South, many white students migrated to the academies, while public schools became in turn more heavily concentrated with African-American students (see List of private schools in Mississippi). The academic content of the academies was usually college preparatory.
Funding for private schools is generally provided through student tuition, endowments, scholarship/school voucher funds, and donations and grants from religious organizations or private individuals. Government funding for religious schools is either subject to restrictions or possibly forbidden, according to the courts' interpretation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment or individual state . Non-religious private schools theoretically could qualify for such funding without hassle, preferring the advantages of independent control of their student admissions and course content instead of the public funding they could get with charter status. A similar concept, recently emerging from within the public school system, is the concept of , which are officially independent public schools, but in many respects operate similarly to nonreligious private schools.
The nature of private schooling in the United States has been debated by Teacher, legislator and , since the beginnings of compulsory education in Massachusetts in 1852. One of the most common topics of debate is whether or not the ability to select a private institution takes funding away from public schools. Many states base their funding off of how many students a school has but will also offer School voucher. These programs and similar incentives exist to incentivize school choice and take stress off of state educational funding. However, it is also believed that taking students and funding out of public schools decreases the quality of these institutions. Still even with this, the Supreme Court precedent appears to favor educational choice, so long as states may set standards for educational accomplishment. Some of the most relevant Supreme Court case law on this is as follows: Runyon v. McCrary, 427 U.S. 160 (1976); Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972); Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (1925); Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923). There is a potential conflict between the values espoused in the above cited cases and the limitations set forward in Article 29 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is below described.Witham, Joan. (1997). "Public or private schools? A dilemma for gifted students?" Roeper Review, 19, pp. 137–141.
Quality private schools in the United States charge substantial tuition: in 2023, tuition cost close to $60,000 annually for some day schools in New York City, and between $65,000 and $85,000 for boarding schools. Nevertheless, tuition may not be sufficient to cover operating expenses, particularly at boarding schools. Leading schools such as the Groton School, Phillips Academy, and Phillips Exeter Academy have substantial endowments - running to over a billion dollars - supplemented by fundraising drives. Boarding schools with a reputation for quality in the United States have a student body drawn from throughout the United States, and in some cases other countries, and a list of applicants which far exceeds their capacity.
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