Over the weekend, I participated in Princeton Model Congress. Besides reaffirming my choice to become an engineer, I thought about how many private schools actually participated in FIRST. My friend could only think of one that has. How many schools pariticpate in First and also if the number is low why do you think this happens?
I can’t comment on why… but here is Lightning’s 0.02
We are 3 public high schools and a 4th private high school.
Plymouth Christian Academy tried to start their own team, and they had some trouble. Not enough students, not enough teacher support, hard to get money, etc…
So we asked them (only like 4-6 students) to join us. So now we are 4… yes, count them, 4 high schools.
Out of the 4 Brazilian teams in 2004, at least 3 of them (including ours) is from a private school.
Now jump in and take your own conclusions. 
The Firebirds are from a private, Catholic, all-girls high-school. I know that in particular our team struggles to bring in more members because we are a private all-girls school. However other issues with running our team, that I see would prevent more private schools from starting robotics teams would be a)size of the school and b) funding from the school district. Our school has around 550 students and most of us are very active with extracurriculars, as are our teachers. So because everyone is already very busy, it is difficult to attract participants. The issue of small class size is more often the case with private schools I think. Another issue we find is we have no monitary support from the school, even when we have a very great need. Some public schools are able to receive some money from the school district, however our school would not receive any for a robotics team.
i know that SWAT 771 is from an all-girls private school
Team 710 is 2 private schools in Ft. Lauderdale FL.
We are a private school with 200 people in the whole highschool, try that on for size
246 is comprised of 4 schools - all private (I believe). The NU team has Boston Latin (I’m almost certain that’s private, correct me if I’m wrong). Team Hammond normally only has 4 high schools - all public - however sometimes they manage to attract the attention of someone from Bishop Noll Institute, a private high school.
We are a private school with about 700 students. Our school is very big on sports, so we don’t get a lot of interest in robotics.
I don’t see why there would be any difference between teams from private schools and teams from public schools in terms of the number of teams from each.
Team 573 is composed of students from both Brother Rice and Marian, brother-sister private schools in the southeast Michigan area.
Like others have stated, private schools struggle to initiate a team because they receive no funding from the state. Therefore, the money that the schools contribute to their robotics programs comes entirely from (in essence) the tuition of their students, given that sponsors provide a limited amount of money. When a program as involved as FIRST is proposed, the students (and their parents) of the school must be made aware.
Talking to students from other local private schools, I have seen that many have not even heard of FIRST, or robotics teams in general. Perhaps if information and advantages of these programs were better relayed (when accreditation is received, for example), the private schools would be more involved. Just a thought 
.
I express a deep hope that more schools, private or public, may discover the benefits of FIRST - because it ROCKS.
116 is at Herndon High School, with about 2800 students, public.
I know there are 10ish other schools at Northern Virginia public schools. There is also a homeschooled team localy too.
I am unaware of a local(NVA) private school team.
Wetzel
Detroit Country Day has a team, but I’m not sure what they’re number is. It’s in the 800’s I think (835 maybe, someone correct me if I’m wrong). And believe somebody already mentioned Brother Rice and Marian. Those are the only two I can think of from around home.
Allison
up until 2004, 571 was exclusively a private school team. This year we merged with Windsor High’s team, which had been inactive for a year or two.
The private school teams from Michigan are:
33 Notre Dame Preparatory
107 Holland Christian
448 Cranbrook-Kingswood
573 Brother Rice/Marian
835 Detroit Country Day
910 Bishop Foley
Forgive me if I excluded a team or included a public school.
These teams comprise 6% of the total teams in this area.
Is this case the same for other states?
Boston Latin, Boston Acadamy, and O’bryant are all public schools, I know people who go there, It does require testing to get in though. So 246 and 125 are not all Private. Milton Academy I believe is private which is part of 125.
Team 33 is from a private school, Notre Dame Preparatory in Pontiac, Michigan. The school has about 800 students (coed). The team consists of about 25.
From NH, there is:
40 (Trinity High School)
811 (Bishop Guertin High School)
1307 (St. Thomas Aquinas High School)