English, Rebecca. (2009). Selling Education Through "Culture": Responses to the Market by New, Non-Government Schools. Australian Educational Researcher, 36. 89-104.

This article refers to a study that looked at the reasons as to why Australian parents chose to send their children to a nongovernmental school instead of a governmental school in one particular Australian city. A major reason for this phenomenon was because parents believed the extra emphasis the private school placed on cultural capital would in turn set their kids up for a better life in the long run. Similarly, these beliefs were fueled by the private school, itself, which made this belief one of its major selling points to parents.

I found this article to be especially interesting because it reminded me of the flight to private schools that has occurred in many regions and districts of the United States. The reason why parents choose to send their kids to private schools is because they believe these schools (with their greater emphasis on cultural capital) will provide their kids with more opportunities at a better life. What this question doesn’t really answer though is whether or not this is true? Do private schools provide children with higher odds of improving their social statuses? As someone who attended both private and public school growing up, I hate to say that I believe it is true depending on where you are from. For example, in certain major American cities, the best education for you lies in the private sector; accordingly, parents (who generally want to what’s best for their children) will enroll their kid in a private school rather than letting them attend the local public school. Sadly enough, we have let many of our public schools deteriorate (lack of quality teachers, lack of resources, lack of funding, etc.) to the point where students attending these schools are not receiving the type of quality education that they should. Part of the reason for this is because these public schools do not/ cannot provide the type of experiences students should be receiving on a regular basis so that they can accrue the cultural capital they will need to succeed in an increasingly globalized world.