<p>It is not surprising that public schools fare the worst in the survey. In many cases, they are not the parents’ or students’ choice of school, but one which they are assigned to by living in a certain location. In contrast, all of the other options are chosen by parents or students, and people are more likely to be happier with things that they chose, rather than what they had to accept because there was no other choice.</p>
<p>But all categories have tremendous variation in actual educational quality between different schools (for example, many private schools, particularly religious schools, are not academically elite, nor do they have that as part of their mission). What matters for any given parents and student is the quality of the choices available to them.</p>