This study explores the effect of school location (city or county) on the relationship between four independent variables (number of private schools, existence of social elite enrolled in private schools, private school affiliation, and private school type) and a series of eight attitudinal items tapping public school superintendents' ideas on two issues. The first four of the dependent variables--increased faith in the public school system, poor private school facilities, poor quality education in private schools, and increasing tuition costs--deal with why students return to public schools, while the second four--private schools took student overload, private schools provided an outlet for racial tension, private schools made public school officials more aware of needs, and private schools created community-based social tensions--deal with the social impact of private schools. The only independent variable that met important criteria for each of the first four models was school type (elementary or all levels). In the second group, only one variable was important in as many as three models and that was the incidence of social elites. (Author/IRT)