Mentally handicapped, ESL, and problem students are easily booted from or denied entry to private schools.
My son (who is and will remain in public school, though we live in a wealthy suburb and so enjoy de facto private schooling) had trouble socializing in 1st grade and was "diagnosed" by a school functionary as having an "autism spectrum disorder". After consulting with my mom, a full-time LD/BD teacher in the Chicago Public Schools, we argued for over a month against assigning an IEP to him. "You need the IEP to get occupational therapy services" (read: handwriting lessons). Yeah, and, we can count on never getting rid of the IEP, or getting him into any selective program anywhere.
(He's concluding 5th grade now, and besides issues getting his homework in, he's doing great. Late bloomer.)
The fact that private schools can be selective about students and can expel them virtually without cause is not a spurious concern. It's a very real issue.
Quick google says catholic schools are financially "twice as efficient spending less money per pupil" as public schools: http://www.gothamgazette.com/iotw/catholicschools/
From 2002, so you can probably do better.
That said, the public schools in NYC are (mostly) a disaster, and it's disgusting to me (as an NYC taxpayer) that their return on investment, so to speak, is so poor. (Even the good schools will commonly have class sizes of 35-40 students. Lots of long writing assignments for high school students? Not likely...)
First NYC is larger than Manhattan and there are plenty of schools with 20-25:1 teacher ratios that would provide a better comparison.
The citation itself was the first I could find, simply to verify the outrageous sounding numbers. At private schools in Manhattan, numbers of 25,000-30,000 are now "normal". I don't know the rates for schools in the outer boroughs, but I'm willing to bet that Brooklyn rates are right behind or equal to Manhattan rates.
My larger point was just that comparing NYC public school to average private school rates was off-center.
Also, just fyi, no matter what they say, those private schools do not offer a 1:4-1:10 student:teacher ratio. 1:12-1:20 is far more common now by high school.
That list contains TOP schools some of which were founded in the 1600 and 1700s and who are so selective that some reject 80% of applicants. That was not a typical list of private schools.
And I actually believe their claims of teacher ratios -- at least on that list.
While I accept, NYC private schools cost more than the national average - they are essentially charging taxpayers $20K a year to not educate kids.
Fair enough - also funny. I did read it. I don't think it says that other schools in NYC cost much less. The numbers are normal for Manhattan and Brooklyn now. I can't get you the weblink for every private school in Manhattan and Brooklyn, but here are two more links chosen pretty much at random. The number you will see over and over in articles and blogs on this is $30,000.
http://www.nysun.com/new-york/parents-facing-sticker-shock-o...
By comparison, average private school tuition is $6600 and Catholic school tuition is $4254.
Spending is probably not the problem.