I attended both private and public schools and the teachers who inspired me most were the ones I encountered in the public system, they had a passion for education that just wasn't evident in the teachers in any of my private schools.

I think the world is changing a great deal in terms of the golden ticket/old boys network. Most large companies no longer hire in house, instead they outsource it to HR companies who use aptitude testing, role-playing and so on to match jobs with the people best suited to them. Why? To avoid the costs associated with hiring staff that don't measure up via the old-boy network. I think that this attitude to hire is becoming more and more prevelant. I certainly wouldn't even bother looking at where a person went to school if I was resume checking and as Lulu pointed out the longer it has been since you left school the less relevant it is.