Critics of private schools claim that education is a public good which should be provided by government to ensure equality and good citizenship. There is a public benefit to subsidized schooling, and it shows up in increased land values near the better schools. But we seldom hear these government schooling advocates proposing to tax the rents generated by this public good. Critics of school choice also claim that the best students would be shifted to private schools, while the worst ones left in the government ones. In fact, however, private schools do admit and help the more difficult students.
Some states even contract with private schools to serve neglected and abused children.
Many parents are paying tuition to provide special schooling for children with handicaps, and the National Challenged Homeschoolers Associated Network estimates that some 30,000 children with disabilities are homeschooled in the United States. In the United States, private schools typically are both less expensive and provide better education than government schools. In the HOPE Academy in Lansing, Michigan, inspired by Marva Collins' school in Chicago, if the kindergartner can't read by year's end, the parents get their money back. It is well known that in the US, many drop-outs and even graduates of high schools are unable to read well or to do simple mathematics. Other countries have had much better achievement.