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Children educated in
private schools
typically do much better than pupils in the state sector. They often perform better on exams, fill a disproportionate number of spots at leading universities and claim the best-paid jobs. Consider the extravagant achievements of graduates from Britain’s very poshest schools: Eton alone has educated more than a third of the country’s 57 prime ministers.
Yet, during a decade of Conservative government,
schools of all types in England have improved.
And when it comes to university entry, a quiet revolution has been under way. Prestigious universities across Britain have been changing their admissions criteria in order to attract a more diverse range of students. Most strikingly, the
share of places at Oxford and Cambridge
going to pupils from government schools has risen fast, while private schools’ share has fallen. Families who were already worried about private schools’ eye-watering fees—in Britain the average cost for a day pupil is more than £16,000 ($20,000) a year—and about stories of
boarding-school misery
now also wonder if an expensive education will count against their children when they apply for college.
The picture is more complicated across the Atlantic. America has many more private schools than Britain, and they are a much more varied bunch. Evidence suggests, however, that America’s private-schoolers—especially those sitting in the swankiest classrooms—do even better in the battle for top university places than those in Britain. But it’s race, rather than class, that tends to take centre stage when admissions policies become subjects of public debate. Now that
affirmative action has ended,
and universities can no longer favour applicants from underrepresented minorities, posh pupils’ advantages may come under closer scrutiny. |
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