You really have to do your research, because each school is different and each state is different. Look up the school profiles and report cards. You might even want to list the pros and cons for each school you visit, so you can see if the school has what is important to you. (Make sure they teach phonics instead of whole word.) All schools have to meet the state's minimum requirements no matter what. Private schools have the option of having a more rigorous ciriculum and can expect more from their students, since they do not have to keep them. Public schools have to open their doors to all students, whether they are disruptive or not. As far as teachers' pay goes, it doesn't matter. I've seen teachers that get a really good salary and are lousey teachers. What matters is that the teacher wants to teach, enjoys teaching, and cares if the students understand the concepts being taught or not.
I went to a public school, but I decided to send my son to a private school. It happens to be a catholic school, since the only private schools here are religous. Turns out it's not so bad and is actually helpful. They've taught my son good values, morals, and even have him offering to do chores! I didn't like my public education, because I was bullied to the extreme and I discovered the good education I thought I had was nothing more than a slice of swiss cheese. (I was missing chemistry and etimology.)The music part was fantastic. I sent my son to catholic school, because he missed the cut-off for public school and was more than ready to go. My son's school is 1 grade level above the public school, starts teaching Spanish in 1st grade, and is 200 points higher on the SAT than our public school.
Pros and Cons.............................
Public school - Pros: Has more extra curricular activities, (Depending on the state, private school and home school kids have to be accepted in public school extra curricular activities if they want to be in them.)has IEP if your child needs it, it's free, has transportation, more diverse, maybe no uniforms, (Some public schools are starting to require uniforms, due to gang problems.) neighbors' kids probably go there, may or may not have a "good" gifted program, all teacher should be certified. (Horrible discovery about out public school is that some of the teachers aren't certified and some are on "emergency certification." It shouldn't happen, since there are 500 applications per position.)
Cons: Depending on where you live they may be behind in their curiculum, the curiculum/teaching method is usually what ever trendy method is in at the time, school officials and teachers have to be very careful about how they discipline students, less homework, (Can be possitive depending on how you look at it.) every student may not have a textbook due to a large student population, all students are kept including the "trouble makers/bullies," school cannot teach values/manners, not allowed to pray if the student wants to.
Private: Smaller, (Everybody gets to know everybody.) usually ahead of the public school, geared toward college prep, can start students early by giving them a readiness test, students can skip grades, better discipline, nobody gets past the office without anyone knowing, teaches values and manners, uniforms, (Initial cost can be high, but afterwards everyone just exchanges clothes.) every student has a textbook, don't have to worry about body piercing and tattoos, no lude clothing, catholic school teaches latin which is helpful with the SAT verbal section, better parent/teacher raport, more academic oriented, more homework, the teacher corrects the homework and not the students.
Cons: Not a lot of extra curricular activities, usually have a poor IEP program....Guess I need help here, because I can't think of anything else.
**Note to parents of "problem" children: Please do not send your child to private/catholic school in hopes that they will calm your child down. It's too distracting to the other children, and you might wind up being told you have to take them back out of that school anyway. Private/catholic schools are not boot camp. Thank you.