From the May 10 Christian Science Monitor:

An educational study titled "A New Look at Public and Private Schools:
Student Background and Mathematics Achievement" appears in the May issue of Phi Delta Kappan, a highly regarded education journal.

Analyzing raw data from the 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress for 28,000 fourth- and eighth-graders representing more than 1,300 public and private schools, Mrs. Lubienski, whose research focuses on equity issues in math education, was surprised by what she was seeing. When children of similar socioeconomic status were compared, the public school children scored higher. See the entire article here.

So, evidence keeps piling up that private schools are not all it's cracked up to be. Which leads me to a question. With this evidence, why would people pay good money to send their children to private schools? To keep their precious little childrean away from the "riff raff." So it is a matter of class, after all. You send your kids to private school because you can afford to.

Further, this study points to a theme I've been seeing lately. The free market is often inefficient. I know this is blasphemy to say in a capitalist society, but that's simply the truth. Look at malpractice insurance premiums. Here is an abstract of an article:

Study Says Malpractice Payouts Aren't Rising
By JENNY ANDERSON
Study to be released by Center for Justice and Democracy, consumer advocacy group, finds net claims for medical malpractice paid by 15 leading insurance companies have remained flat over last five years, while net premiums have surged 120 percent; from 2000 to 2004, increase in premiums collected by leading 15 medical malpractice insurance companies was 21 times increase in claims they paid.

The insurance companies are gouging the doctors. How do we fix that? Regulation.