France's public schools have long been held up as a crucible of the republican ideal, a place where children from rich and poor families alike can receive a top-notch education imbued with the values of ‘liberty, equality and fraternity.’ But performance has been slipping for years, and the government is struggling to arrest the slide as gigantic pension outlays and a need to rein in public finances leave little room for maneuver. Those issues have prompted a growing number of wealthier parents to abandon the public sector in favor of private schooling ↧ Wealthy French quit failing state schools squeezed by pensions and ... Clemence Remy moved to the French city of Nantes in 2020 and enrolled her two girls in the local state school. The teachers were good, but she grew so exasperated ​by rolling staff strikes that she eventually put them in a private school.