Why We Still Need Public Schools: Public Education for the Common Good Center on Education Policy 20

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Why We Still Need Public Schools Public
Education for the Common GoodCenter on
Education Policy2007

• SummaryKerry W. Helm
• March 13, 2007

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The Origins of Public Education

• The whole people must take upon themselves the
  education of the whole people and be willing to
  bear the expenses of it. There should not be a
  district of one mile square, without a school in
  it, not founded by a charitable individual, but
  maintained at the public expense of the people
  themselves.
• John Adams, US President, letter to John Jebb,
  1785.

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Before Public Education

• Private homes, institutions, and tutors.
• Apprenticeships.
• General School Act of 1647, Massachusetts Bay
  Colony
• 50 homes must appoint a teacher to be paid by
  parents, masters, or public.
• 100 homes must set up a grammar school.
• Curricula, school years, grade levels all varied.
• Most ended their education at elementary level.
• Educational options varied by wealth, social
  class.

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• The good education of youth has been esteemed by
  wise men in all ages, as the surest foundation of
  the happiness of both private families and of
  commonwealths. Almost all governments have
  therefore made it a principal object of their
  attention, to establish and endow with proper
  revenues, such seminaries of learning, as might
  supply the succeeding age with men qualified to
  serve the publick sic with honour themselves,
  and to their country.
• Benjamin Franklin, U.S. statesman, inventor, and
  diplomat.
• Proposals Related to the Education of Youth in
  Pennsylvania, 1749.

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Beginning of Public Education

• 1799 Jefferson attempts to legislate public
  funding for the creation of public elementary
  schools for white children in Virginia.
• 1780s Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire
  enact laws to fund tax-supported public schools.
• 1785, US Congress adopts Land Ordinance, land
  sales in the Northwest Territory will partially
  fund public schools in states created in this
  area.
• Localities form public schools.

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Beginning of Public Education

• 1830s Horace Mann, secretary of Massachusetts
  Board of Education, promotes common school,
  publicly funded and locally governed with a
  common curriculum.
• Universal public education as a solution for
  social ills.
• Transform children into moral, literate,
  productive citizens.
• Eliminate poverty crime.
• Quell class conflict.
• Unify the populous.
• Public investment would benefit all and make
  schools accountable to all.

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Beginning of Public Education

• It was in making education not only common to
  all, but in some sense compulsory on all, that
  the destiny of the free republic of America was
  practically settled.
• James Russell Lowell, poet, editor, and diplomat.
• Among My Books Six Essays, 1870.

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Spread of Public Education

• Mid-19th century common schools take hold
  gradually yet unevenly.
• Northeastern and Midwestern states have
  established systems of free public education.
• Late 19th century public elementary schools
  throughout the country including schools for
  black children.
• 1918 all states have compulsory attendance laws
  requiring children to attend and complete at
  least an elementary education.
• High schools spring up during this time, but
  attendance is not enforced.
• Immigration waves cause leaders/reformers to call
  upon public schools to Americanize immigrants,
  including literacy in English.

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Spread of Public Education

• Mid-20th century focus turns from access to
  equity.
• Segregation exists.
• Substandard facilities
• Inadequate funding
• Unqualified teachers
• Overcrowding

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Spread of Public Education

• Of all the civil rights for which the world has
  struggled and fought for 5,000 years, the right
  to learn is undoubtedly the most fundamentalThe
  freedom to learnhas been bought by bitter
  sacrifice. And whatever we may think of the
  curtailment of other civil rights, we should
  fight to the last ditch to keep open the right to
  learn
• W.E.B. DuBois, civil rights activities and
  educator
• The Freedom to Learn, 1949

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Equity Quality in Public Education

• 1954, Brown v. Board of Education
• US Supreme Court declared segregated schools
  unconstitutional
• Some states resisted, implementation took more
  than a decade.
• 60s and 70s, federal laws enacted to improve
  education for poor, migrant, handicapped, Native
  American, limited English and female students.
• Mandates brought some funding, but limited.
• Brought a host of regulations regarding educating
  certain populations of students.

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Equity Quality in Public Education

• 2000, No Child Left Behind federal law, enacted
  by congress and signed by the President, the most
  sweeping federal legislations regarding public
  education since IDEA and other laws in the 60s.
• Requires public schools to steadily raise
  achievement as measured by standardized tests,
  state-to-state.
• Requires public schools to close the achievement
  gap among student populations.
• Enacts punitive measures for schools that
  under-perform.

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• In summary, the growth of public education during
  the past two centuries has been fueled by high
  ideals about advancing the common good, but the
  realities of public schools have sometimes failed
  to live up to these ideals. (p.6)

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The Public Missions of Public Education And Why
They Still Apply

• Six Themes
• To provide universal access to free education
• To guarantee equal opportunities for all children
• To unify a diverse population
• To prepare people for citizenship in a democratic
  society
• To prepare people to become economically
  self-sufficient
• To improve social conditions

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Universal Access to Free Education

• T he fact remains that the whole country is
  directly interested in the education of every
  child that lives within its borders. The
  ignorance of any part of the American people so
  deeply concerns all the rest that there can be no
  doubt of the right to pass laws compelling the
  attendance of every child at school
• Frederick Douglass, African-American writer and
  abolitionist
• Speech at the National Convention of Colored Men,
  1883.

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Universal Access to Free Education

• Public schools were created to make education
  universally available to all children, free of
  charge.
• Public schools educate 88 of US students and are
  accessible in all parts of the country.
• Public schools must educate all children while
  private schools may be selective.
• 98 of students with disabilities are educated in
  public schools as opposed to 1 in private
  schools.
• Public schools are regulated by federal and state
  laws that private schools are exempt from. These
  laws include NCLB requirements for highly
  qualified teachers and levels of student
  achievement.

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To guarantee equal opportunity for all children.

• A republican government should be based on free
  and equal education among the people.
• Susan B. Anthony, womens rights leader, letter
  to friend, 1900.

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To guarantee equal opportunity for all children.

• Public education has long been recognized as a
  gateway to opportunity for people from all
  economic and racial/ethnic backgrounds.
• Equal access in public schools is not yet a
  reality. There still exists a divide along racial
  and economic boundaries. This is due in part to
  the heavy reliance on local control in public
  schools. (Education is a state, not a federal
  function).

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To unify a diverse population.

• The most effectual, and indeed the only
  effectual way to produce this individuality and
  harmony of national feeling and character is to
  bring our children into the same schools and have
  them educated together.
• Calvin Stowe, theology professor and
  abolitionist, Transactions of the Fifth Annual
  Meeting of the Western Literary Institute, 1836.

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To unify a diverse population.

• Public schools are the main American institution
  for transmitting a
  common
  culture to a diverse population.
• More than 10 of public school students are
  English language learners19 are children of
  immigrant parentssome school districts enroll
  students from more than two dozen language groups.

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To prepare people for citizenship in a democratic
society.

• Above all things, I hope the education of the
  common people will be attended to, convinced that
  on their good sense we may rely with the most
  security for the preservation of a due degree of
  liberty.
• Thomas Jefferson, US president, letter to James
  Madison, 1787.

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To prepare people for citizenship in a democratic
society.

• Nations founders believed strongly that the
  success of this new democracy depended on the
  competency of its citizenry. Citizens
• a. understand political and social issues
• b. participate in civic life.
• c. vote wisely
• d. protect their rights and freedoms
• e. keep the nation secure from inside and
  outside threats
• 2. Strong character education.

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To prepare people for citizenship in a democratic
society.

• 2004 Presidential election, 40 of citizens with
  less than a high school education voted compared
  to 56 of high school graduates and 78 of
  college graduates.
• 4. According to an international study, American
  students are better able to interpret political
  information, but showed only an average
  understanding of basic concepts and institutions
  of democracy.
• 5. Supporting public education is an exercise in
  citizenship itself.

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To prepare people to become economically
self-sufficient.

• Education, then, beyond all other devices of
  human origin, is the great equalizer of the
  conditions of men the balance-wheel of the
  social machineryIt does better than disarm the
  poor of their hostility towards the rich it
  prevents being poor.
• Horace Mann, father of the common school,
  report no. 12 of the Massachusetts School Board,
  1848.

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To prepare people to become economically
self-sufficient.

• 1. Public education is and has been the engine
  of upward economic mobility for millions of
  Americans.
• 2. In 2004, high school graduates 18 and older
  earned on average 28,645 compared to 19,169 for
  those without a high school diploma.
• 3. Public schools offer vocational and technical
  education.
• 4. Public schools shape the nations ability to
  compete in a global economy.

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To improve social conditions.

• Fewer pillories and whipping posts and smaller
  gaols jails,with their usual expenses and
  taxes, will be necessary when our youth are
  properly educatedI believe it could be proved
  that the expenses of confining, trying, and
  executing criminals amount every year, in most of
  the counties, to more money than would be
  sufficient to maintain the schools.
• Benjamin Rush, physician and statesman, Essay,
  Literary, Moral and Philosophical, 1786.

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To improve social conditions.

• 1. Early advocates of the common school put
  great store in the power of public education to
  eliminate poverty, crime, and a host of other
  social ills.
• 2. Seventy-five percent (75) of state prison
  inmates, 59 of federal inmates, and 69 of
  county? inmates did not complete high school.
• 3. Americans expect public schools to address
  social ills and to provide programs for social
  and civic engagement.
• 4. Sixteen percent (16) of school-age children
  in the US are from families with incomes below
  the federal poverty level.

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Perspectives About the Purposes of Education

• Opinion polls support the conclusions drawn
  above
• 2006 opinion poll, Americans cited the primary
  purpose for public schools
• To give all children a chance to get ahead and
  level the playing field - 25
• To keep America strong and competitive in the
  global economy - 22
• To help strengthen our democracy so children
  will have the skills to participate as adults -
  19
• Because todays children are tomorrows
  workforce - 16
• Education enriches peoples lives by developing
  their capacities to think critically, appreciate
  culture, and maintain a sense of curiosity about
  the world.
• A good elementary and secondary education can
  spur young people to go on to higher education
  and pursue learning all their lives.

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Maintaining Public Education While Improving Its
Quality.

• What the best and wisest parent wants for his
  own child, that must the community want for all
  of its children. Any other ideal for our schools
  is narrow and unlovely acted upon, it destroys
  our democracy.
• John Dewey, educational philosopher, The School
  and Society, 1907.

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Maintaining Public Education While Improving Its
Quality.

• Some public schools fall short of the mission.
• Ineffective instruction.
• High drop-out rates.
• Not integrating diverse populations.
• Factors affecting the mission
• Internal
• Poor leadership
• Ineffective teaching
• Misplaced priorities
• External
• Inadequate funding
• Lack of community support
• Poverty and social dysfunction.

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Maintaining Public Education While Improving Its
Quality.

• Privatization?
• Without public schools, education would become
  a private interest, much to the detriment of
  societyWhat institution could be counted on to
  educate all students whose families could not
  afford tuition?...responsibility for education
  would be dispersed across a jumble of providers
  with no coordinating role for any level of
  governmentThere would be no guarantees that any
  of the public missions of public education would
  remain a priorityThe nation would lose the one
  institution that routinely brings together
  children from different walks of life. (p.15)

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Maintaining Public Education While Improving Its
Quality.

• Holding a set of ideals as defined above gives
  public schools something to work towards.
• Conclusion Encourage reforms that will help all
  schools live up to those ideals.

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Maintaining Public Education While Improving Its
Quality.

• The answer is not to do away with public
  schools or to give up on the ideals that have
  guided them for two centuries. Nor is the answer
  to accept public schools as they are. The answer
  is to encourage reforms that will help all
  schools live up to these idealsPublic schools
  must be accountable to citizens, but citizens
  must also be accountable to public schools.
  Americans can provide a model for their children
  of the virtues of a well-educated citizenry by
  supporting public education, engaging with their
  local schools, showing wisdom and compassion in
  decisions affecting schools, and advocating for
  better and more equitable public education. (p.
  16)