this repeatedly and its no more true now than the other times you've tossed it out. There's no way of determining what returns there'll be unless we know exactly where the money is being spent. Simply saying "spend more on education!" is vacuous and self-serving. We do need to give VIP Academy a rest and return to the question raised in this discussion thread. Steven Rhude's last post directed us to the recent Our Kids analysis of Public Schools vs Private Schools. It is a reasonably balanced and fair assessment, but clearly tilts in the direction of private, independent schools. The Our Kids comparative analysis references the superior test results and the school rankings, particularly in BC.The Harvard study I am not familiar with but would be worth looking at more closely. On the matter of PISA results, all sides now acknowledge their value in assessing not only student performance levels, but the relative educational quality of school systems. The Finland results brought educational progressives into the discussion because they now had something to crow about. What's my point? On the basis of 2009 PISA results, private school students do perform significantly better. Much of the variation may be the result of being able to choose your students..but the current financial crisis since 2008 has decimated the applicant pools and private schools are definitely not as selective as they were five years ago.Most private school heads and virtually everyone connected with boarding schools now concede that admissions standards are so