Basically it is that the press is not really interested in protecting kids but in discrediting the Catholic Church. The public schools, on the other hand, are a bulwark of liberalism.
That's a very good point. IMO it's not the abuse per se, but the hypocracy (of a celibate Catholic priesthood, or a monogamous Protestant pastorate) that keeps the press interested. You'll never find the press covering abuses committed by homosexual and pedophilic organizations, because there's no perceived hypocracy therein. The press doesn't care how many lesbian relationships a "womenpriest" has, because frankly the press already expects that sort of behavior from them. In other words, you can't break a vow that you never made, or one that your beliefs don't require you to keep.
Consider that the government-run public school system is officially amoral and atheistic/polytheistic by law. There is no hypocrisy or outrage at this kind of behavior to be reported, unless the parents' religious morals were violated by the teacher, because the school technically can't have any religious morals to break. The non-Christian population IMO wishes they were in the students' place! Check out the posts on any "teacher abuse" thread. Half of the FReepers post comments akin to "I wish I had that teacher in high school!" whenever one of these stories comes out, if the teacher is deemed physically attractive. Where is the Catholic outrage at those congratulatory comments?
If we can't blame the Vatican for the priest scandals, should we blame the NEA for the school ones?