This is an article from the 2026 Civitas Examiner (Volume 3, No. 2) and was written by one of our students, Lucy. The opinions expressed herein do not reflect those of Civitas other than respect for the value of open dialogue. To read more Civitas Examiner stories or to submit your own, click here.
The Founding Fathers believed in providing a public education for all citizens of the United States. What they wanted was an accessible education for students to be able to make informed decisions and grow in knowledge. They understood that education provided to every American regarding the same fundamental principles was essential to the survival of the republic. This is why in the U.S., public schools receive so much attention and money through the federal and state governments. School and education as a whole has remained so important and central to America. This access to schooling is so important which is why public schools were established, and they need the access to tools and money to fund 50 million students nationwide.
While public education stands as the backbone of a free society, private schools also account for a portion of the schooling provided in the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Education, private schools are not subject to constitutional jurisdiction. This means that private schools do not generally need to abide by all constitutional rights such as parts of the first and fourth amendments. This is because private schools do not typically receive direct governmental funding. However, even if these private schools accept or apply for federal or state funding, they are still not required to follow all parts of constitutional law regarding schools, though they do then fall under the jurisdiction of the Dept. of Education. The Department of Education Organization Act expressly prohibits the Department from exercising “any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system… except to the extent authorized by law.”
When a school receives government funding, you would think these educational facilities would need to abide by laws that public ones do, because those schools would then be taking in tax dollars that could have been used for public schools that benefit the majority of the US population. Well, that just isn’t the case for private schools. Private schools really only need to abide by laws that apply to private organizations, as well as discrimination laws based on race and disability. They have free roam when it comes to things like regulated curriculum, state and district testing, special education, admissions and operations, and in some states they are also exempt from any ADA requirements. Even when they receive this governmental funding, they are still allowed to do many things they could do when they were being funded completely privately, including discrimination based on sexual identity, gender, and religion.
Even then, outlawing discrimination based on race and discrimination for admission into private school is also really difficult to regulate because there are so many loopholes to discriminate, which is why many private schools also don’t have disabled people. There have also been cases in which claims against schools have come up regarding wrongful expulsions and racism in general. There are several stories and investigations that have occurred in the United States to determine the existence of racism in those institutions. Not to mention the beginnings of school vouchers–the history of them being rooted in racism. Even the Supreme Court case of Our Lady Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Buerro ruled that religious private schools are not subject to anti-discrimination laws during the teacher hiring process.
Private schools are also under no obligation to provide ADA and most accessibility initiatives/programs, classwork, and their buildings also do not need to have accessible wheelchair ramps, or any other kind of architecture built for physically disabled people. Private schools also do not need to follow 504 or IEP plans for students. Though some of these things change when they receive public funds. If they receive federal or state funding, they must supply students with 504s with “reasonable accommodations,” as said in section 504 of Rehabilitation Act. However, this leaves room for the school officials to pick and choose what types of accommodations they deem as “reasonable,” which can become an issue for students with mental conditions, or students with physical/mental disabilities.
Not to mention that when a private school applies for a government grant or any kind of governmental funding, the money comes from tax credit initiatives as well as federal grant programs. Both of which are funded with taxpayer dollars. Along with this, these schools also can accept government-funded vouchers, therefore indirectly receiving government money. This means that these private schools who receive funding from either state or federal government (directly or indirectly) are being funded by your tax money while not having to abide by the same laws that public schools do.
This is an issue for many Americans because they believe their tax money should go to public institutions rather than private organizations because 91 percent of the U.S. students attends a public school. It doesn’t make sense that this money goes to private institutions that are private for the reason that they don’t want to be held down by the rules and regulations of the Department of Education. They are completely free from the rules when they don’t accept federal or state funding, and nobody is arguing their right to do so. All in all, private schools use taxpayer dollars for an institution that is privately owned, not open to everyone, and does not have to abide by the laws all publicly funded schools do.
