Private schools give a name, not an education

Why on Earth would a parent in their right minds send their kid to secondary private school in Northern Delaware without even TRYING to get into a selective school unless it was for religious reasons? Why would you plop down $20,000 when you could just get a free education here at a school such as Cab or Newark Charter? Is is really that you get a better education there, or is it just for the prestigous name of "Tower Hill" or "Wilmington Friends"? The first disadvantage is that the child has many, many more rights at a public school (in fact they are protected by the constitution), and it is much harder to kicked out at a private school. Also, public schools are much more diverse (and I speak as an attendee at both), not only racially, but (obviously) socioeconomically. As one of the few middle-class kids at a private school, I felt quite out-of-place in a private elementary school when I was part of a financial aid program to allow low and middle-income families to attend the school. I was often picked on (especially in 4th and 5th grade) because I didn't have the fancy stuff that they had. I had always wondered (not in a racist way) why there were so few minority students at my school when there were more minorities than white people at my preschool and in my neighborhood (which was about 50-50) and why no one in my neighborhood was a snob. In fact, I once asked my mom to send me to my neighborhood school, which my mom explained to me was extremely bad and dangerous. This is understandable if the ELEMENTARY school is dangerous, but once there's secondary school, you should try to get your kid into a good public school before plopping down exorbitant amounts of money to send your kid to private school.