When I first announced I would be moving to the US with my family for a year, there was one question on everyone's lips: was I worried about school shootings?

My children — then aged 11 and 9 — would be entering the American education system, where almost one school shooting was recorded for each week of last year.

Of course I held concerns, I replied. But we were going to be living in Arlington, Virginia, just outside of Washington, DC, where the political climate is considered liberal.

My children would have to do lockdown drills at their new schools, which I discussed with them, but I took solace in the fact that incidents in this area are rare.

However, as I would discover, for all of the moralising over gun control, the most striking difference between the two schooling systems had little to do with safety.

Rather, it was the quality of public education, which was far better in the US than anything we have experienced in Australia.

Australian schools are underfunded

In Sydney, my children's primary school is a small, neighbourhood operation by the beach with a wonderful community garden and an artist in residence.

However, classrooms are so crowded that they constantly hit their limits.

There is scant science or history, and to take a foreign language for half an hour, once a week costs money.

Art is taught one term a year, the library is small and staffed part-time, and there is no regular music education (and no band or orchestra).

In order to repair the playground or install sun shades, they have to raise money from the P&C.

And as for technology? Sure, there are tablets in the upper classrooms, but hardly enough for every student.

Compare the pair

At my son's elementary school in Virginia, however, the state of play could not be more different.

He was given an iPad to take home every day, and a compulsory foreign language course was taught twice a week.

When my family and I moved to Arlington, Virginia, people asked me if I was concerned about gun control. ( Facebook: Arlington County, Virginia )

The library was the size of four classrooms and filled with books.

Weekly art and music were built into the curriculum, and science and history were taught by a dedicated teacher.

There was an orchestra and band, and opportunities for extracurricular sports and clubs, alongside several playgrounds, an indoor gymnasium and cafeteria/auditorium.

Public high schools in Arlington also all have their own indoor swimming pools, tracks, baseball and football fields. In other words, they look like private schools in Australia.

At my daughter's middle school, a counsellor invited her to a club during lunchtime for kids who had recently moved to the area, and she played Ultimate Frisbee as an extracurricular sport and percussion in the band.

Both my children were tested and discovered to be behind in maths, so their teachers provided extra resources to help them catch up. ( Supplied: Eleanor Limprecht )

Both children were tested and discovered to be behind in maths, so their teachers provided extra resources to help them catch up.

All of their teachers were readily available through email, and it never took longer than a few hours to get a reply (something I have not heard of outside private schooling in Australia).

The funding disparity

So what is going on? Why do public schools in the US receive so much more public funding than they do in Australia?

One reason is that not every school in America looks like the schools in Arlington, Virginia.

Public schools are partially funded by the state and partially funded by property taxes from homeowners. So, if you live in a wealthier area, the schools receive more funding.

Arlington has high property values (which are set to become higher as Amazon moves to the area), and public schools in the county spent over US$19,000 ($27,290) per student in 2016.

Comparatively, in NSW, public schools spent about $13,300 per student in the same year.

When such a funding disparity exists, it should come as little surprise that the quality of education is so different.

Though my children benefited from the change, the US system is undoubtedly problematic — public schools in affluent areas receive more funding than those in low income areas.

Conversely, the US has not experienced the same exodus from the public system that has occurred in Australia, particularly in places like Sydney.

We have dropped the ball

I have always baulked at the choice of a private school in Australia because I want my children to receive a diverse education (less than half of students in Arlington County public schools are white — the rest are primarily Hispanic, African American, and Asian).

But I also want them to have a quality education, with small classrooms and access to art, music, and foreign languages.

Now that her year is coming to an end, Eleanor Limprecht is surprised by how little the stereotypes about America figured into her time. ( Supplied: Eleanor Limprecht )

In Sydney, finding this outside of the private system seems nigh impossible.

Now that our year is coming to an end, I am surprised by how little the stereotypes about America figured into our time here.

When I ask my children what they will remember, they say it is the friends they made and what they learnt. Their classmates farewelled them with cards, notes, pizza parties and a video.

My son's year five teacher asked for his address back in Australia so she can write him letters.

While we pride ourselves as a nation on having greater access to healthcare and social welfare than the US, we have dropped the ball on public education.

We need to stop funnelling money into the private system and fund public schools to provide quality education for every student.

Eleanor Limprecht is a novelist and writing teacher.