Free to Teach: What America’s Teachers Say About Teaching in Public and Private Schools

Using data from the U.S. Department of Education’s large-scale School and Staffing Survey, a new study by, The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, offers rare insight into the working conditions and attitudes of teachers in public and private schools. Bottom line: teachers in private schools fare better on a number of indicators. Here is a sample of a few of the differences from the study’s executive summary:

• Private school teachers are much more likely to say they will
  continue teaching as long as they are able (62 percent v. 44
  percent), while public school teachers are much more likely
  to say they’ll leave teaching as soon as they are eligible for
  retirement (33 percent v. 12 percent) and that they would immediately
  leave teaching if a higher paying job were available
  (20 percent v. 12 percent).
• Private school teachers are much more likely to have a great
  deal of control over selection of textbooks and instructional
  materials (53 percent v. 32 percent) and content, topics, and
  skills to be taught (60 percent v. 36 percent).
• Private school teachers are much more likely to have a great
  deal of influence on performance standards for students (40
  percent v. 18 percent), curriculum (47 percent v. 22 percent),
  and discipline policy (25 percent v. 13 percent).
• Public school teachers are much more likely to report
  that student misbehavior (37 percent v. 21 percent) or
  tardiness and class cutting (33 percent v. 17 percent) disrupt
  their classes, and are four times more likely to say
  student violence is a problem on at least a monthly basis
  (48 percent v. 12 percent).
• Private school teachers are much more likely to strongly
  agree that they have all the textbooks and supplies they need
  (67 percent v. 41 percent).
• Private school teachers are more likely to agree that they get
  all the support they need to teach special needs students (72
  percent v. 64 percent).
• Seven out of ten private school teachers report that student racial
  tension never happens at their schools, compared to fewer
  than half of public school teachers (72 percent v. 43 percent).
• Although salaries are higher in public schools, private school
  teachers are more likely to be satisfied with their salaries (51
  percent v. 46 percent).
• Measurements of teacher workload (class sizes, hours
  worked, and hours teaching) are similar in public and private
  schools.