Interesting post Divvy. DH has also participated in the "weeding out" process you describe... he actually wanted to hire a public schooled graduate at first... until he realised that... well, it wasn't going to work in THIS situation. However I'm sure that there are many situations where a public education might serve a child better... everything depends on the child... and yes, the parenting. There is no perfect school... only perfect MATCHES between school and child.