<human>: Give me the gist of the text in a nutshell

I had a debate earlier about what the main reason parents like private school is.  I am somewhat of a cynic and said that, on the most basic level, parents send their kids to private schools in order to separate their kids from (for lack of a better word) the poor/lower middle class kids.  From my own experience, parents that can afford private schools seem to think that their kids are special and deserve to be surrounded by other kids that are equally special and removed from the riff-raff that is the public school population.

 
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The other side of the argument was that the main reason to go to private schools was for a better education. She contended that the private schools have better funds and teachers aren't tenured and so in general a good teacher doesn't last long.  This pumps out students that are more well-rounded and this is what parents are looking for on a basic level.  

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Facts published by the government conclude that public school test scores are not significantly different from private school test scores (with one or two exceptions coming from particular subsets of private schools, i.e. Conservative Christian or Lutheran schools, and only in grade 8). Also, math test scores were significantly higher from public schools in grade 4 but that is besides the point.  source: [National Assessment of Education Progress](

 
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So my question is: **On the most basic level**, do parents send their kids to private school to separate them from the general population or to get a better education?
 
 
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<bot>: On the most basic level, do parents send their kids to private school to separate them from the general population or to get a better education?