So that I don't address the cat fight going on, I'll focus on the initial posts in this thread that are just a bunch of subjective comments. My thoughts are that I don't agree for a second that public schools are on even par with parochial schools. I base most of my comment on what I saw first hand in San Francisco growing up and how it has continued to get worse. We have one gem in regards to public schools and that's Lowell. You can group the rest of them in the average to sub-par category. I also find the sports comments laughable as most parochial schools in my area would beat public schools across the board in all the major sports. De La Salle High School, for example, is known nationally for its football program and would mop the floor with any public schools. We have many talented parochial schools with very good basketball teams that could do the same.
Ultimately I believe it is the teachers unions that have brought education down in San Francisco and given CA a 47th ranking in Education. Part of the problem is exactly what was described in the little cat fight that started...you simply can't get rid of bad teachers. The other complaint I've heard is the quality of students that public schools teach (mostly those that speak English as a 2nd language). The problem with that complaint is it's hypocrisy at its finest since the majority of those teachers would simply prefer to have open borders and have voted accordingly to support that (sorry, can't have your cake and eat it too).
I've seen studies supporting both sides on which system better prepares students for college and the work environment (and not interested in arguing about it for another 30 pages like the health care arguments). But the common thread I've seen in most studies supporting public schools is they always try to throw in some adjustments/disclaimers pulling out some of their students from the mix and claiming they are an anomaly. With that said, CA contributes roughly $11k in tax money per student for education. Most of the Democrats in this area claim that it's not enough and things would improve if only we could increase that number (typical throw money at the problem solution that Democrats always come up with that never fixes anything). In doing the math for my area, if a family were given a cumulative pot of $11k per year, it would be enough money to said their kids to parochial schools from kindergarten through high school. And given that opportunity, I don't know a parent in my area that wouldn't do it.