First off, most private schools currently recieve NO government funding. I've seen many private schools loosen up over the years, but its not nearly as out of control as public schools are (in general), nor will they ever be. The difference between private schools and public schools, is that in private school the controls are in the hands of parents (a far more singular voice) and the board/principle. In public school, you've got 50k voices, and a particularly loud voice, the teachers' union -- no real leadership. For private schools it is simply a matter of taking control of the reigns, and deciding WHAT the objectives are (barring civil litigation and the like).

That being said though, this kind of random violence is bound to happen at private schools as well. The problem has between little and nothing to do with discipline. Private schools do have other more significant advantages, but I don't believe this is one of them. Kids such as the ones at Columbine aren't neccessarily going to set off any blips.

Futhermore, this "random violence" problem is statistically not that big of a problem, for public and private schools alike. There have always been kids with serious emotional issues at all schools. I, for one, believe that if we could somehow get the media to not DWELL (eg: one hour -- people shot -- end of story) on such acts we'd never see such spikes in violence -- they're clearly "inspired" by one another. Kids have not fundamentally changed in the past 20 years. It is the media. Forcing the media to ignore the situation would be best; I suspect the ACLU might object. ;)