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When choosing a school for their child, most families find themselves weighing three main options — public, charter, or private. Public schools remain the backbone of American education, funded by tax dollars and open to all. Charter schools — also publicly funded — offer more flexibility in curriculum and teaching approaches, and operate with greater independence. Private schools, which rely on tuition, may offer smaller classes, specialized programs, or religious affiliations. Understanding the distinctions among these three types of schools can help you focus on what matters most: finding the best fit for your child and your family.

Check out How to choose a school for your child. In our guide, you can see all the aspects of evaluating, visiting, and choosing the right school for your child鈥檚 unique needs. Then, you can search for schools near you.

Public schools

As of the 2023-2024 school year, the U.S. had a total of . These elementary, middle, and high schools are funded almost entirely by local, state, and federal government dollars; families do not pay tuition. Public schools have to follow state guidelines on what they can teach and how children are evaluated.Most are traditional schools with educational standards set by each state. Because public schools rely on public funding, their budgets can be subject to cuts.

Charter schools

Charter schools are public schools, but they鈥檙e not traditional district schools. Our nation鈥檚 8,000 charter schools offer an institutional hybrid. Like traditional public schools, charter schools are tuition-free, funded primarily by public dollars, and open to everyone. However, parents generally must submit a separate application to enroll a child in a charter school, and like private schools, spaces are often limited. Charter schools are independently run, and some are operated by for-profit private companies.
However, charter schools are still funded by government coffers and accountable to the government body — be it state, county, or district — that provides the charter. (Many successful charters do substantial additional fundraising as well.) If a school is mismanaged or test scores are poor, a charter school can be shut down.

Private schools

Private schools, a category that includes 鈥榠ndependent鈥� schools and parochial schools, mostly depend on their own funding, which may come from tuition, grants, donations, and endowments. Private schools also often actively seek money from alumni, businesses, and community organizations. If the school is associated with a religious group, as is the case with Catholic parochial schools, the religious organization — in this case the Catholic Church — may be an important source of funding as well. Finally, in states with voucher systems, private schools may be funded by tuition that is paid with a voucher from the state.

Because they鈥檙e autonomous, private schools are free to offer religious education or other curriculum not regulated by state standards. Private schools may or may not be accredited. Accreditation ensures that the school meets regional or national standards set by a group of peers. It also ensures that the school鈥檚 administration and academic programs undergo review by an outside group at least once every few years.
As of 2022, there were 29,73030,492 private schools in the U.S. Private elementary school tuition averages anywhere between and annually, depending on the . Tuition tends to be lower in elementary grades and higher in high school.

Religious schools tend to have lower tuition because of their additional sources of funding and their sometimes larger class sizes. For example, the nation鈥檚 are far less expensive than most independent private schools. The average Catholic school costs about $3,700 a year for elementary and $8,200 for high school, according to the .

School admission policies

By law, public schools must accept every child in the district, but that doesn鈥檛 mean your child will get into the school of your choice. Magnet schools, which are a type of public school with a specialized focus, draw children from larger areas than a neighborhood zone and can be very difficult to get into. Some high-performing public schools accept children based on high test scores. Districts may also place students based on resources: for instance, a district may steer a student with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to a local school that has a special education program for children with ASD.

The way districts place students varies radically by region and can be a source of parental anxiety in navigating the school system and advocating for the best fit for your child. In many larger school districts, students are placed in schools via a lottery. At the high school level, many districts in larger metropolitan areas offer special schools with competitive enrollment based on students鈥� GPAs, artistic portfolios, or test scores.

Charter schools can also be hard to get into if they are popular, and many use a lottery system to fill any vacancies.

Private schools are not required to accept every child and often require extensive applications that involve multiple interviews, essays, and testing. Private schools can be highly selective: they may choose students based on academic achievement, religion, gender (in the case of single-sex schools), and other factors such as family involvement or ability to pay.

Many private schools do not have special education programs or teachers trained to work with learning differences . Some private schools will try to serve the needs of all the students they admit, but extra resources may come at an additional cost. Other private schools may recommend that children with learning differences look elsewhere for special education. In contrast, public schools must offer children with disabilities a 鈥渇ree and appropriate public education,鈥� which means special services tailored to their needs and free testing.

Teacher certification

Public school teachers usually hold a bachelor鈥檚 degree and are state certified or are working toward certification. Certification means that a teacher has gone through the training required by the state, which includes student teaching and course work. Teachers who work at charter schools may fall under more flexible certification requirements than other public school teachers.

Teachers in private schools are not required by the states to have certification, although many private schools hire only certified teachers. Uncertified private school teachers may have subject-area expertise and an undergraduate or graduate degree in the subject they teach.

Academic programs and class sizes

Public schools must follow state guidelines that outline teaching standards and testing procedures. In theory, this creates a certain amount of quality control over academic subjects like reading and mathematics. But with education standards often set by the state, some criticize the rigid curriculum that many public schools offer.

Funding cuts have forced many public schools to reduce teaching staff and cut back on classes that are outside the state鈥檚 core curriculum, such as music and arts. Charter schools also may struggle with funding, typically receiving less per pupil than traditional public schools. Many charter schools raise substantial amounts of money from private sources — as a result, spending per pupil between charter schools can vary radically within a single city.

Public school class sizes differ from , and even between districts in the same state. Some states such as Vermont and Alaska have smaller public school class sizes on average, while others such as California have larger ones.Many charters are smaller schools, which may result in smaller class sizes, but there is no norm among charter schools either. And although many private schools provide small classes with low student-to-teacher ratios, there is no guarantee that such schools will keep their class size below a certain level.

Racial and religious diversity at school

Scholarships and loan programs have helped to make private schools increasingly diverse — though not as diverse as many public schools. According to NAIS, in the 2019-2020 school year . Compare that with public schools, where nationwide 55 percent of the 49.4 million students enrolled are children of color, according to .

Many parents want their child to attend schools that reflect the communities around them. Public school systems have tried to address racial segregation by creating magnet schools. Like charter schools, magnet schools draw students from different incomes and racial groups often by offering special programs, such as STEAM, engineering, fine and performing arts, and environmental sciences.

But some say those aims fall short, especially for charter schools. One report from UCLA found that African American charter school students are more likely to be in a school of mostly black students than their peers in traditional public schools.

For many parents, a faith-based education matters. These parents may opt for a private school with a religious component. Catholic, Jewish, and Christian schools can embrace faith-based education in their curriculum and other activities, including attendance at a chapel, synagogue, or temple. But students from non-religious families attend religious schools, too. In 1970, only about 2.7 percent of students in Catholic schools were non-Catholic; by 2023, the proportion was .

Selecting a school for your child can be a deeply personal choice and may be rooted in your family鈥檚 beliefs and values. Whether a school is private, public, or charter, what鈥檚 most important is that the school is a good fit for your child and your family. Be sure to visit any school you are considering. Talk to other parents whose children have attended the school. Finally, look at a school鈥檚 樱桃视频鈥� rating and reviews to make sure your child is getting the best education possible.