From Cookson & Persell's `Preparing For Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools'--Part 5

In their 1985 book, Preparing For Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools, Peter W. Cookson Jr. and Cardine Hodges Persell wrote the following about the U.S. power elite's private school and elite prep school educational system:

“…Two schools alone possess land equal to 5 percent of the state of Rhode Island. If all the (often choice) real estate holdings of American boarding schools were added together, total acreage would measure in the hundreds of thousands from coast to coast…

“In effect, the combined real estate holdings of American boarding schools represent a `Prep National Park,’ a preserve free from state and local taxes…

“…Most prep schools can offer facilities and equipment that rival many small colleges…

“…Private schools, including boarding schools, are rarely democratic from the standpoint of admission. Like private corporations, country clubs, and cooperative real estate holdings, private schools have the right to choose whom they will or will not admit…Their student bodies have tended to be homogeneous in terms of family background, religion, and race…”