The perception that Hawai'i's public schools are simply not good enough, combined with the desire of parents to do the best thing for their children, has pushed private-school enrollment here higher than on the Mainland.

While direct comparisons between public and private schools are unfair, given the differences in resources and mission, private schools are usually judged by their successes while public schools are judged by their failures.

About 16 percent of Hawai'i students attend private schools, higher than the national average of 11 percent. In urban Honolulu, where the largest and most popular private schools are, the number is much higher — 38 percent — fueling the belief that private-school enrollment is substantially larger than on the Mainland.

But interviews with some parents and educators suggest that the impression of a huge divide in quality between public and private education may be exaggerated by Hawai'i's history and by stereotypes about privilege and social class.

Students, with the right balance of parent involvement, quality teaching and rigorous curriculum, can excel in public or private schools. The challenge for Hawai'i parents, educators say, is to look beyond perceptions and find schools that best fit the needs of their children.

Wendell Staszkow, who spent most of his career as a principal and administrator at the state Department of Education before taking over as dean of the upper school at Saint Louis School this year, sent his daughter to private schools and his son to public schools.

"I always believed that a child can get a first-rate education at public schools," he said.

"But I think a lot of it has to do with parental choice. Parents need to do what's best for their child. I also think that it depends on how much a student wants to be challenged."

Private schools traditionally accept applications for new students in the fall, so many parents will have to make their choices during the next several weeks. Public and private school leaders say they work cooperatively to give parents a range of options, but the DOE's poor image has convinced many parents that private schools are the only acceptable choice.

That pattern is rooted in Hawai'i's past, when Christian missionaries created common schools for Hawaiians and select schools for their children and Hawaiian royalty. By 1920, a federal survey of education in the Islands found that 11 percent of elementary school students and 41 percent of high school students attended private schools, higher proportions than on the Mainland.

Top-flight private schools pride themselves on diversity, with many offering scholarships or financial aid to lower-income families, yet an aura of exclusivity has remained from the time when wealthy whites sent their children to Punahou, Asians favored Iolani and Hawaiians preferred Kamehameha.

Private advantages

College placement is a critical factor for many parents, so it is not surprising that even parents in neighborhoods with good public schools still prefer private schools.

"It's a no-brainer for us," said J.T. Smith, a Kailua Realtor-Associate whose son went to public schools but is now an eighth-grader at Mid-Pacific Institute. "I just saw that what my son should have been doing in school he wasn't. It just wasn't happening."

He said private school forced his son to work harder. "He has more of a work ethic. We tell him, 'We're paying for this. You better get good grades.' "

David Nako, an investment representative in Kaimuki, said he hoped his son, John, would choose a private high school but left the decision up to him after he attended public elementary and middle schools.

"We always talked about why it's important to do your best," Nako said. "At public school, the bar is maybe not as high. Expectations are not as high."

John Nako entered the ninth grade at Punahou last week. "I just think I will be able to take advantage of their facilities," he said. "There is nothing wrong with public school, at least the ones I went to. But I'd recommend trying out for a private school just to see what it would be like to get in."

Parents who live in neighborhoods where public schools have a mixed reputation are often even more determined to get their children into private schools.

Denelle Gonzalez, an administrative assistant in Waipahu whose husband is in the Army, went to St. Joseph School and wants her children to have the same Catholic school experience. One of her sons is a second-grader at St. Joseph's, but her other son attends a preschool for students with special needs at August Ahrens Elementary School where he can work on speech and vocabulary.

"The teachers there have been great. They want to make sure that he develops correctly," Gonzalez said.

But despite the positive experience at public school and the financial strain of tuition, she said she still wants to send both of her boys to St. Joseph's.

"There was no question about it. I'm just hoping he gets in," Gonzalez said. "Somehow, some way, we'll come up with the finances. I just want to try to give them a decent start."

UH top choice

One trend that may sometimes get overlooked by parents is that most students in Hawai'i who go to college choose a school in the Islands, most likely in the University of Hawai'i system.

In the fall of 2000, according to UH research, 71 percent of first-time college freshmen from Hawai'i picked a school in the state, while 29 percent went to school on the Mainland. Eighty-one percent of those who stayed in Hawai'i ended up at a UH campus, with more than half enrolling in one of the community colleges. But researchers also found that the number of Hawai'i students going to Mainland colleges has steadily increased over time.

An education from a stellar private school can help students expand their college choices. A separate UH report on the 2003 high school graduating class found that about a third of private-school graduates went to UH, although the rate varied widely between schools. For instance, only about 13 percent of Punahou and Iolani graduates chose UH that year, while 48 percent of Saint Louis and 38 percent of Mid-Pacific graduates selected UH.

With private-school tuition ranging from about $5,000 to $13,000 a year, middle- and lower-income parents have to make sure they are choosing schools for reasons deeper than reputation or social status.

Suzanne Jones, Honolulu's recycling coordinator, said some of her friends were surprised when she opted for public school for her children, even though her husband is a DOE teacher.

"I have to say there was a lot of pressure," said Jones, who lives in Hale'iwa.

Her daughter went to Kahuku High & Intermediate School and her son goes to Mililani High School on a geographic exception because his father teaches special education at the school.

She remembers when her daughter, now at Leeward Community College, went to Punahou for an event and saw the Olympic-size swimming pool. "I thought her jaw was going to drop off. I said, 'Uh oh, she's going to want to go here," Jones said. "But when I asked her, she said that while she really wants the pool, she liked her teachers at Kahuku."

Jones, like others interviewed, believes that parents who take an active role in their children's education can help narrow some of the differences between public and private school. "I have absolutely no regrets," she said.

Parents also have more options at public schools, from geographic exceptions so their children can attend schools outside their neighborhoods, to charter schools that experiment with design and curriculum.

Todd Gray, general manager of the Native Hawaiian Economic Alliance, sent his son to a private preschool and always envisioned him at Kamehameha or Punahou. But his son, Akili, is thriving as a first-grader at Voyager, a charter school in a Kaka'ako shopping mall.

Gray and his wife live in Kailua and work downtown, so the school is convenient, but he was also drawn to its smaller setting and dedicated teachers, who noticed early on that Akili excelled in math and moved him up to a higher level.

"I was a hard sell at first," said Gray, who went to private schools. "I had to go in and sit down and talk with them."

Money was a consideration, he said, but his family's bond with the school was just as important. Gray plans to send his daughter to Voyager.

"We would have spent more money working to pay for tuition than working with my son and the school on his education," Gray said.

Successes obscured

Public schools are required by law to release student test scores and are now rated by how their most disadvantaged students perform. Unlike private schools, school administrators do not have the option of screening students or simply removing those who fail to make the cut.

State schools superintendent Pat Hamamoto has acknowledged that the existing public-school model is obsolete and has challenged schools to think creatively to raise student achievement. Sixty percent of Hawai'i public schools did not meet performance objectives under the federal No Child Left Behind law in the 2002-2003 school year, and educators are still determining whether a bump in test scores last school year helped more schools reach their goals.

Test scores indicate that most public-school students do not meet the state's academic standards in math and reading, which can overshadow students who are clearly succeeding. In the 2002-2003 school year, for instance, more than 85 percent of fifth-graders at Momilani Elementary School met or exceeded the state's reading standards, while more than 97 percent of fifth-graders at Noelani Elementary School scored average or above average in math on the national SAT.

The news media has aggressively followed the DOE's struggles with low test scores and aging infrastructure, while some of the department's successes have been obscured.

Last school year, for example, public-school students earned $31.7 million in scholarships, led by Mililani High and Moanalua High School, where students at both schools pulled in $2.6 million. Students at Roosevelt High School and Campbell High School each won $1.9 million.

The state's larger high schools are evolving, creating schools-within-schools or unique programs. At Wai'anae High School, students at Searider Productions have earned state and national recognition for their multimedia work.

At Moanalua High, as many as 300 students have been turned away because the school is well over capacity. Darrel Galera, Moanalua's principal, said the school has a renowned music program — the student symphony has played at Carnegie Hall — and learning centers that specialize in communications technology and foreign language.

"I think we have some quality programs," Galera said. "A lot of parents tell me they appreciate what our teachers are doing in the classroom."

In the most recent Hawaii Opinion Poll on Public Education, released last year, more than half of parents interviewed gave A and B grades to the schools their oldest child attended, while 31 percent gave good marks to the schools in their communities. Overall, though, most people rated public schools with C or D grades.

A survey of military parents released last week found that 58 percent of parents would recommend their children's public school to others, up from 50 percent in 2002.

Jessica Gaytan, a senior at Moanalua High, came here from Washington state as a freshman when her father was moved by the Navy. She said her family seriously considered private schools because of the bad reputation of public schools.

"I think it's a little misleading," said Gaytan, a representative to the Hawai'i State Student Council. "We just fell in love with the school and the teachers. I feel it's better because we're allowed more freedom to do more things."

Students at public schools may also be able to minimize the advantages of private schools by taking advance-placement courses to prepare for college. Researchers at UH and the University of Georgia studied an urban Hawai'i high school and found racial and socioeconomic patterns in course selection that can have an influence on whether students succeed.

"The trick is curriculum," said Ronald Heck, a UH education professor and one of the researchers. "It's a question of parents being involved and making good choices."

Robert Witt, executive director of the Hawai'i Association of Independent Schools, said the choice between public or private school often comes down to tradition and preference as much as academics. He tells parents to visit different schools and talk to principals and teachers.

"The first thing I say is, 'Have you been to your neighborhood public school and talked to the principal?' " Witt said. "I really think parents need to look at the big picture and shop around.

"They know their children better than anyone."