I've read that too that once at univesity, private school students have a higher drop out rate. I think this is to do with the "spoon feeding" they receive in high school. My beliefs don't necessarily sway to private or public, but to what is the best school in my area. After much research I decided to send my dd to the local Catholic Primary school. Although I am baptised Catholic, I am not practicing, but her school has such a lovely community feel about it and I am happy for her to have religion introduced to her at school. She can choose when she is older if she wants to follow any religion or not. The school demographic represents a wide range of students from various social, economic and cultural backgrounds and they teach about other backgrounds, religions etc. (actually more so than the local public primary). My other 2 dd's will go there and then I will be sending them to one of the Catholic Girls colleges in high school. I have read that girls actually perform better in single sex school than in co ed situations, whereas boys it doesn't matter. The fees aren't as high as a private school, but the school does seem to offer more in terms of extra carricular activities and class sizes were smaller and they encourage alot of parent involvement than our local public school. I think at the end of the day, education is the best gift we can give our children and public or private doesn't matter. You need to do the research and find out what is best for your family.