ABSTRACT
Throughout most of the world, private schooling preceded public schools. Private schools were largely religious in their founding and operations and emphasized values and character as much as literacy and secular knowledge. It was not until the middle or latter part of the nineteenth century that industrializing countries established broad-based government sponsorship and operation of public schools-eventually dwarfi ng the importance of the private sector in the education of the overall population. In the United States, private or independent schools account for only about one-ninth of enrollments today and more than 80 percent of their enrollments are in religiously-affi liated institutions.
