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I don't even think that's a big deal anymore. This is John Travolta's house.And here's his "driveway."There are a number of private fields that are set up around small, aviation neighborhoods. Most of these have homes that have private hangars and taxiways that lead to the runway.

My cousins Chris and Maya graduated from arguably one of the best high schools in the U.S. It’s a private institution and the cost of attendance is higher than my college tuition.At their high school 100% of students graduate. The average SAT score is pushing 1400 and every student is proficient in math. The student-teacher ratio is 6:1 and class sizes are regularly single digits.I attend a run of the mill urban public high school. It’s mostly white, economically stratified, and academically average.My school graduates slightly over three quarters of its students. The average SAT of my school is 1100 and 43% of students meet the state standards for mathematics. The student-teacher ratio is 20:1. A class of less than 23 or 24 is a rarity, and classes pushing 30 are commonplace.My cousins received the objectively superior education. But more than that, they were surrounded with people who pushed them towards excellence. Chris and Maya went to Princeton and Dartmouth. Their best friends went to Stanford and Penn. I would bet money that every student who attended their high school chose to pursue higher education with many of them attending the top institutions the world has to offer.These kids are set up for nothing but success. And perhaps more crucially, they’re avoiding the pitfalls of the public school student body.An eye-opening experience for me was listening to Maya talk about how the biggest troublemaker at her school was put on disciplinary prohibition for being rude in Instagram comments.Whereas at my school, I can name fifteen people off the top of my head who sell drugs. A senior was taken away in handcuffs for running a revenge porn ring of underage girls. A freshman was taken to the hospital after having his head slammed into the corner of a locker for talking to someone’s girlfriend. A sophomore was sent to juvie for buying a gun and threatening to murder his pregnant girlfriend after assaulting her in public.My school isn’t some dystopian hellhole - it’s average at worst. We’re lucky that there isn’t much of a gang presence, and that we have administration that takes threats to student safety seriously.But that’s the sort of thing that shows how low the bar is.We’re lucky not to have too much gang violence in our place of education.Chris and Maya’s high school experience had them a long way from any such concerns - rubbing shoulders with the future global ruling class. Kids from rich and influential families who live in a world where police don’t show up at school to collect students for committing felonies.I’m mixing with gifted and well-connected people also. But I’m also in an environment with kids who are on a life path that will leave them dead or in prison. Put simply, my cousins probably didn’t know a single person like that, let alone have to try and sit through Spanish 1 with them.Instead, my cousins get a college prep education I can only dream of, go to Ivies, become doctors, lawyers, and world leaders, and send their kids through the same system that made them.It’s possible that they might experience some rudeness in Instagram comments. But they can guarantee that other students won’t knock their daughters up, beat them senseless, and threaten to shoot them.I’m content with my public high school experience, but it can’t hold a candle to the private one that my cousins got.

Every few years, the Catholic schools around here (Chicago) ask parents this very question… why did they choose Catholic school? These are their answers, in order of frequency:Safety. This is, by far, the #1 reason people abandon the public school system. It’s just not safe for their children.Smaller class sizes/more individualized student attention.More family-friendly atmosphere/better “community” feel to the school.No “teaching to the test” like at public schools.Religion/the religious part of the curriculum. Notable that this is a distant fifth place reason for choosing Catholic schools.Proximity to their home or job.Not on that list, but another reason I know some parents have brought their children to Catholic school:To avoid having their child labelled as “special education” by the public schools.And, if the survey were done this year, I’m positive a popular reason would be:The Catholic schools are actually open for in-person learning, while the public schools are all online.