text: Even the unprivileged can be discerning.  Dig deeper into the data and you'll find that Catholic schools tend to do marginally better (overall) than public schools.  This is because Catholic schools tend to have a tad more discipline applied.  No doubt the quality of instruction is comparable, but the added discipline seems to make some difference.  I know of lots of non-Catholic parents who sent their kids to Catholic schools for this very reason.
  
  BTW, my original posting was not an attack on public institutions.  Canada's PISA ratings are still pretty good overall, albeit they have been slipping steadily over the past number of years (and that's another issue for another time).  
  
  In today's hyper-competitive globalized world, parents have a legitimate interest in extracting every incremental advantage they can get for their kids.  As the subject article implies, FDK is one route.  As I implied, private/Charter (or even Catholic) schools are others.