tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266300416434206693.post518816968424700819..comments2023-08-11T12:04:42.077+02:00Comments on The Church of Rationality: Why So Few Private Schools in Germany?LemmusLemmushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00917054221547240969noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266300416434206693.post-92095669012611831612014-04-18T08:16:23.551+02:002014-04-18T08:16:23.551+02:00Bill:
I have not done quantitative analyses, but...Bill: <br /><br />I have not done quantitative analyses, but a quick look at <a href="https://www.google.de/maps/search/privatschulen+in+deutschland/@51.1642292,10.4541194,6z/data=!3m1!4b1>a Google-generated map</a> suggests private schools are not more common in religiously heterogenous (the middle of the former West Germany). Nor would I expect this, as Germany has nothing like the Protestant-Catholic culture wars that you describe for the U.S.<br /><br />U.S.-style tracking solves the problem of keeping your kids away from the riff-raff only partially: They still share the same schoolyard.<br /><br />This leaves the issue of districting. Importantly, from grade 5 or 7 (depending on which state you're in) onwards, school choice is not restricted by which district you're in - you can send your kids anywhere. Sure, you don't want the school to be to far away from home, but this gives you more flexibility. <br /><br />This difference probably helps explain why German neighbourhoods are economically more heterogenous than U.S. neighbourhoods. But in the U.S., an alternative to moving into a more expensive neighbourhood is sending your kid to a private school. Hence, it makes more sense to send your kid to a private school in the U.S. than it does in Germany.LemmusLemmushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00917054221547240969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4266300416434206693.post-85140815710854947742014-04-17T21:00:34.193+02:002014-04-17T21:00:34.193+02:00US public schools are de jure untracked but de fac...US public schools are de jure untracked but de facto tracked.<br /><br />First, there are gigantic variances in school demographics among local school districts. It is inexpressible in words how different schools in majority black and 90% white districts are, for example. And, even among high performing ethnic groups, there are school districts for plumbers & carpenters and school districts for corporate managers & doctors. These are not explicit, of course, but people live with people like themselves, etc.<br /><br />Even within the school districts for white professionals, there is tracking (since there are *some* plumbers' and carpenters' children). My kids' schools have four tracks (which are never, ever called tracks of course). There is the "special needs" track (5%); there is the "normal" track (50%); there is the "advanced" track 1(25%); there is the "accelerated" track (20%). There is also a gifted program. In some schools, this is an additional track. In my kids' schools, it is moribund.<br /><br />Private schools in the US come from two main sources. First, compulsory public schooling in the US was a Protestant plot to destroy Catholic culture in the North. Catholics responded with Catholic schools. In the South, desegregation in the 60s and 70s caused a massive number of so-called "white academies" to spring up.<br /><br />I wonder. Are private schools more common in the few parts of Germany that have both lots of Protestants and lots of Catholics?Billnoreply@blogger.com