I wish I had a dollar for every parent who has said, “I’d love to sent my child to a public school, but …” The but is invariably related to real and perceived deficiencies in zoned schools and by race and class prejudices insidiously driven and reinforced by persistently unaddressed planned inequity. The sequel to the but is always a justification for opting out of public schools and enrollment in a charter or private education. Some parents add, "I'm the product of public schools. I support public schools, but I'm not going to sacrifice my children." Such are the inevitable responses to our country’s acceptance of inequality and scarcity as unalterable. The sum of thousands of these personal choices for some children– increasingly supported by tax revenues– undermines the education of all children. The blame is not on parent choices but on the politicians who refuse to address inequity, while funding policies that undermine public education. If we want a different outcome, we need to vote for politicians who represent different values.
Education in the United States is contentious. It always has been because personal and societal decisions are inextricably interwoven. Now, we are at an inflection point in which consequential questions about education are hotly debated. Consider these for the November elections.
Whose business is the education of students in the United States?
Who should get to make decisions about where, what, with whom, and how children learn?
If our nation values democracy and the common good, the answer to both questions is:
Of course, every parent cares about where, what, with whom, and how their children learn. However, decisions about education affect everyone, not just school attendees and their families. Their education is everyone’s business– but not in the mercantile sense of the word. Other people’s children grow up to be our neighbors, co-workers, and citizens (who vote or do not). Their subsequent behaviors and decisions as adults touch us all, whether or not we have school-age children. That is why decisions about education– a common good– should be made democratically on behalf of all children and not just by individual parents.
Unfortunately, the idea that education is a common good, not a commodity, and should be governed democratically is under assault.
Should decisions about education be made by and for all of us through locally elected school boards? Or, by unelected private boards? Is education literally the business of the eight families who have collectively spent over $35.5 million to influence the outcomes of local school board elections? Is it the business of would-be entrepreneurs out to make a buck?
Once again, if our nation values democracy and the common good the answers are clear:
Yes, no, no, and no.
Well, not so fast. The meaning of democracy and the common good– seemingly foundational concepts– have always been contested territory. How the nation should negotiate the balance between individual liberty and justice for all has been a constant struggle, as has who has a right to participate in which decisions. Resolution of these conflicts is still a moving target. Our current debates about public funding for privately governed charter schools and vouchers for private school tuition are prime examples.
The Constitution of the United States invokes the primacy a more perfect union, justice, and the general welfare. To be sure, in the late 18th century that excluded slaves and women. It took centuries of struggle to broaden who should be fully included in the common good and in democratic participation, but the ideas were there as first principles– promises– if incompletely realized. The still unfulfilled promises remain a stain on our nation, but nonetheless a challenge we need to work on together to fulfill.
When does individual liberty limit justice for all?
One way to think about resolving the tension between individual wants and the common good is to recognize that some things are everybody's business and some things are not. Some things fall within the category of fundamental human rights, and other things do not.
Whether you buy no fat, low fat, or whole milk is your business. Who you marry is your business. I want to talk about just one of the thing that is everybody’s business and a fundamental right– education.
Of course, there will be disagreements about foundational values and derivative policies and programs. For example, some people want children to learn critical thinking, while others want them to learn obedience to authority. Some want children to learn about the evidence-based science of evolution, while others prefer faith-based indoctrination. Of course, our democracy is an imperfect arbiter of those disagreements. Some of that is unavoidable. However, the United States has not just failed to constrain unequal access to decision making but has exacerbated it due to unrestrained lobbying and campaign contributions, gerrymandering of voting districts, and intentional undermining of voting rights. However, the solution to flawed democracy is fairer democratic processes, not abdication.
(School) Choice is just another word for nothing left to lose but the common good.
Over the last several decades an alternative to democratically governed schools has gained ascendancy among most Republicans and too many Democrats. The alternative goes by the euphemistic appellation, school choice. That means taking funds collected from general tax revenue that were previously designated to support public schools that accept all students and transferring the money to charter schools or private schools that only accept some students. In addition, school choice replaces democratic decision-making about education for all students with decisions by individual parents about their children.
One core assertion is that education is a commodity, the purchase, and selection of which should be made by parents, who have a fundamental right to choose any school, whether governed privately or democratically and that all taxpayers should support their individual choices. Another assumption is that local school boards are hopelessly flawed.
School choice means subsidizing segregation with taxes.
For most of the history of public education in the United States, most children attended their local school– with two glaring exceptions.
The first was that schools– especially in the South– were segregated by law. There were schools for White children and schools for Black children. In 1954 the Supreme Court found such de jure segregation to be a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution. Separate schools, because of our long post-slavery history of forced inequality, were declared inherently unequal. In many places, plans for desegregation met stiff resistance. However, having embraced the value of integrated schools for the country, many communities attempted to address the second exception, de facto segregation– due to often planned neighborhood segregation– often followed again with stiff resistance.
That brings us to the more recent exception. For a while, the nation made progress in reducing school segregation. However, we are now moving backward. As desegregation court orders expired and housing segregation increased, racial isolation intensified. In 1988, about 44% of black students went to majority white schools nationally; only 20% of black students do so today. Today's typical white student attends a school that is nearly 75 percent white, but just one-eighth Latino and one-twelfth black. Under cover of the slogan, school choice, the aspirational and researched-based principle that we all benefit when children learn in integrated schools is under siege– again. Interaction of students across race and class differences are diminishing and with it support for education as a common good.
Proponents of public funding for charter schools and vouchers wield the word choice as if it is synonymous with both freedom and democracy. It is not. The goal of liberty in this view is not to protect, ensure or establish general domestic wellbeing. Instead, it is about individuals getting what they want without regard for whether their individual choices hurt the vulnerable or the common good.
Allow no segregation subsidies.
Make no mistake. A system that funds and countenances choosing segregated schools undermines democracy and the common good. Giving revenue raised from taxes directly or indirectly to privately governed charter and private schools is a segregation subsidy. In many cases, it is also a religion subsidy.
They should not get a dime of public funds. Nothing. Not for transportation. Not for Title I services. If parents want to opt out of the public system that is their right, but the public should not pay for it. Some secular private entities do fill needs for particular special needs services not provided by public schools, but that is a failure of public attention and funding, not a desirable outcome.
Our public schools are far from perfect. They suffer from gross inequity and underfunding. Their governance by local school boards is at times fraught with bickering, parochialism, and sometimes with prejudice and patronage. The same can be said of state boards of education and the US Department of Education. I have often disagreed strenuously with decisions at each level of governance. In my forty-five years working in and around school systems, I have seen it all– the good, the bad, and the ugly.
However, democracy remains the only viable way to resolve disagreements, without sacrificing the core values of equity and the common good in education and elsewhere.
Don’t let anyone take that away! Get out and vote.
Arthur H. Camins is a lifelong educator. He works part time with curriculum developers at UC
Berkeley as an assessment specialist. He retired recently as Director of the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education at Stevens Institute of Technology. He has taught and been an administrator in New York City, Massachusetts, and Louisville, Kentucky. The ideas expressed in this article are his alone.
His writings are collected at http://www.arthurcamins.com
Follow Arthur on Twitter: @arthurcamins
