Schools and teachers

One subject that always struck a chord with parents is schools. Public or Private? We've tried both and I love to talk with other parents about their school choices. Those conversations also influenced my opinion. Still, what I'm going to say is highly subjective.
There are different types of private schools with different goals, I've only researched academic ones, so I would not know much about Montessori or Waldorf programs.

What are the usual reasons for choosing private school?
A) Stronger academic curriculum.
B) Advanced student body: if parents care enough to pay for education, kids will be more inclined to study.
C) Better teachers
D) More individualized attention to each student needs.

Surprisingly, if you compare with good public school, first 3 reasons would not hold.
A) Curriculum is comparable. While many private schools claim that they are a year ahead of public ones, the reason for that is often not a faster pace of learning, but skipping over certain points of subject entirely.
Of course, there is always Harker, the only school I know, which offers 3 different levels for each grade Math and English instructions. Now for the tune of ~30K/year those kids in higher level classes will get better education, while those in regular level classes just get the same education as kids in good public school.
B) You will find that parents of students in good public schools are just as fond of educating their children as parents of kids in private schools. Therefore there are a lot of education oriented kids in good public schools, and there are always kids, who are not inclined to bother with studying. And you can find them in public and in private schools alike.
C) In spite the budget crisis public schools offer very attractive salary/benefits packages for their teachers. Most private schools are not able to match those packages. Therefore public schools have a better pick of applicants.

Regardless whether kids attend Private or Public school, the most important and influential person in their life (beside parents) is the teacher. Out of curiosity I've compiled a list of all teachers my kids encountered during their school years. I was only looking at Elementary and Middle school teachers, and then only core subject ones in Middle school.
I decided to divide all teachers in 4 categories.
Excellent: those who really love kids and their job. Those, who invent new ways to teach that make kids burst with curiosity and run to school every day.
Good: those who are not Excellent, but not yet Indifferent
Indifferent: those who do their job but don't really care about anything else.
Bad: those who like to humiliate kids and show their authority
Out of 20 teachers my kids encountered during their schools years, 3 were Excellent, 4 - Good, 11-Indifferent, and 2-Bad.
Looks like a perfect picture of real life.