December 1996 | Number 7
Public Education and Democratic Society

Finding Common Ground in an Era of Fragile Support

These are uncertain times for public schools in the United States. Charter schools are gaining ground. Tuition vouchers are provoking dramatic debates. In some states, families are forming vocal parental rights groups. And homeschooling is on the rise.

What do these complex trends indicate? Some observers suggest that public education itself is in jeopardy. A recent survey by Public Agenda (Johnson 1995) found that even though most people in the United States are not ready to abandon public schools, many are deeply disappointed in the schools. Extensive research by the Kettering Foundation reached similar conclusions. Its 1996 report contends that people are less connected as a public, leading to an erosion in support for public schools. In contrast, some observers believe the controversies in today's public schools signify increasing public interest in education.

Regardless, the troubling tone of current school debates indicates a need for policymakers to revisit fundamental concerns:

• What is the role of public education in a democracy?
• What makes public education public?
• What can be done to strengthen support for public education?

The way we, as a society, choose to answer these essential questions will determine the future of school governance, finance, curriculum, and instruction. Beneath divisive debates in education lies the common ground of a society founded on democratic ideals. Decision makers must ask whether and how those ideals shape the educational experiences of the 52 million students in the United States.

The Role of Public Education in a Democracy

Public education in the United States emerged in part from the goals of democratic society: to prepare people to become responsible citizens; to improve social conditions; to promote cultural unity; to help people become economically self-sufficient; and to enhance individual happiness and enrich individual lives (Center for Education Policy 1996). In the spirit of such goals, public schools were widely established in the late 1800s. Although the quality and inclusiveness of such schools have varied since their creation, public schools originated as the necessary expression of democratic society.

As public spaces, U.S. schools have endured and reflected broad social debates. Reconciling two core American principles, “the pursuit of happiness” and “the common good,” has caused perpetual tension for public education. The charge of enabling each student to achieve individual promise, including economic potential, often stands at odds with the broader need to prepare all learners to be good citizens. “Individual freedom must be balanced with the broader responsibility to make the culture a worthwhile culture,” emphasizes Jesse Goodman, chair of curriculum studies at the Indiana University School of Education. “When these values are out of balance, democracy is undermined.”

Since the dawn of public schools, society has struggled with the central mission of education. Educator and civil rights leader W.E.B. DuBois warned in 1902, for instance, that “The ideals of education, whether men [sic] are taught to teach or plow, to weave or to write, must not be allowed to sink into sordid utilitarianism. Education must keep broad ideals before it, and never forget that it is dealing with Souls and not with Dollars.” Economic concerns continue to dominate many discussions of schooling. Although career preparation is a valid function of education, democracy demands much more. Democratic life requires critical inquiry, collective decision making, civic participation, and a commitment to the common good.

For the Common Good

Commitment to the common good is a clear component of the U.S. Constitution and other documents on which the United States is founded. Yet today's educational realities sometimes betray that principle. Compared to other industrialized nations, the U.S. has tolerated a high degree of inequity across its public schools. Children in schools only miles apart may learn under drastically different conditions. The disparities among classrooms today ultimately threaten the preservation of core democratic values. As education pioneer John Dewey emphasized nearly a century ago, “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.”

For a democratic society to be reliant on the informed participation of all its members, educational excellence for all children, through collectively supported schooling, must be a goal. At a time when one in five Americans under 18 lives in poverty, according to the 1990 Census, and the gap between educational haves and have-nots is widening, the best hope for improvement is publicly supported schools that offer equitable opportunities for achievement. As Linda Darling-Hammond, professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, stresses (1996, p. 7), “If we cannot build such schools at this moment in history, I believe that a deeply stratified society—one divided by access to knowledge and the opportunity to learn—could undo our chances for democratic life and government.”

Democratic Schools

If schools are to prepare children for participatory democratic life, then school governance, structure, curriculum, and instruction must model democratic ideals. “The most powerful meaning of democracy is formed not in glossy political rhetoric, but in the details of everyday lives,” Michael Apple, professor at the University of Wisconsin, and James Beane, professor at National-Louis University, emphasize in Democratic Schools (1995, p. 103).

For schools to become democratic communities, “The model must not be a factory, but a village,” Jesse Goodman advises. From the classroom to the school boardroom, democratic decision-making processes create the cornerstone for democratic schooling. Such approaches may differ markedly from the informed consent that often masquerades as democratic practice, Goodman suggests. “If people are directly affected by a decision, they should have a voice in that decision,” he adds. Although controversy is an inherent part of democratic schools, shared ideals transcend individual differences. Democratic schooling demands the thoughtful efforts of all stakeholders, including students, teachers, families, and community members.

Children are our living link to the future. For democratic ideals to survive, public education must bring young people together to explore the meaning of democratic life. Public schools must strive to model such a life. And schools must offer all children equitable opportunities for the individual achievement necessary for full participation in democratic society.

Emphasizing the Public in Public Education

Public schools were created to serve complex and demanding roles in the maintenance and evolution of democratic society. To remain true to its purposes, public education depends upon these core conditions: public support, public participation, and mutual accountability between schools and the public. At a minimum, public support of education implies adequate funding in all schools. Schools cannot prepare students for healthy and informed futures without safe buildings, quality materials, and well-prepared staff—all of which require the fiscal commitment of communities and their publicly elected officials.

Beyond funding support, schools also need the active participation of community members, including those without school-age children. The number of children in U.S. schools today is at an all-time high and is expected to increase—even as the population as a whole is aging. More than 75 percent of U.S. households do not have children in schools, and many adults do not interact daily with children. “Because three-fourths of American households have no school-age children, the picture of schools that is painted by the media is extremely important,” says John F. Jennings, director of the Center on National Education Policy. “If the media show all the things that are wrong with the schools, and few—if any—that are right, they create a very distorted and negative view” (1996, p. 38). Beyond more complete media portrayals of schooling, other efforts can improve relationships between the public and schools. Creating democratic schools by drawing community members into school decision making also fortifies support for public education. “A sense of ownership is necessary for people to make an investment in schools,” Goodman asserts.

The principle of mutual accountability between the public and its schools lies at the heart of several current controversies in education. Accountability presupposes that publicly supported schools are responsive to public input and evaluation. Joe Nathan, a leader of the charter school movement and director of the Center for School Change at the University of Minnesota, says that publicly supported schools owe their communities acceptable measures of student achievement. And when student performance levels are not acceptable to the community, the school must be willing to seek effective remedies. “Schools can't take families for granted,” he indicates. This accountability serves as a critical lens to evaluate education innovations. Nathan contends that charter schools uphold accountability. But, according to Nathan, publicly funded tuition vouchers, when applied to private or parochial school costs, can violate accountability. Whether various forms of school choice enhance or destroy the public good remains a point of contention in many school communities.

Toward Respectful Deliberation

The manner in which communities deliberate education issues may in itself affect support for public schools. While some school communities have crossed the boundaries of difference in the pursuit of hopeful educational reform, others have been caught in a downward spiral of cynicism and mistrust. “The principal aim of a democratic theory of education is not to offer solutions to all the problems plaguing our educational institutions, but to consider ways of resolving those problems that are compatible with a commitment to democratic values,” notes political scientist Amy Gutmann, the associate dean of faculty at Princeton University, in Democratic Education (1987, p. 11).

Although engaging in meaningful discussion with those who are critical of public schools may be difficult, such efforts are ultimately necessary to avoid social fragmentation. Mark Gerzon, cofounder of The Common Enterprise, an organization working to bridge ideological and partisan gaps between citizens, emphasizes (1996, p. 269), “Democracy is a process, not a product. It is how diverse constituencies coexist. It is the fabric of our civil society. What keeps the United States from disintegrating into the Divided States is our fragile yet enduring compact as fellow citizens.”

Adequate public financial support for education, public participation in the daily life of schools, and the accountability of schools to their communities make public education public. A willingness among diverse members of a school community to respectfully address differences over education issues is also necessary to maintain truly public schools.

Supporting Public Education, Supporting The Civil Society

Public schools mirror the broader social contexts in which they function. “There are many reasons to suspect that the well-being of schools is directly related to the state of public life,” asserts David Mathews (1996), executive director of the Kettering Foundation. For policymakers, educators, and families, the corrosion of communities has become a serious concern. “American social capital in the form of civic associations has significantly eroded over the last generation,” Harvard political scientist Robert D. Putnam warns (1995, p. 73). Social capital, according to Putnam, “refers to features of social organization such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit.” Thousands of non-profit organizations, including religious associations, activist groups, scout troops, and schools, generate social capital and form what is known as the civil society.

Jeremy Rifkin, president of the Foundation on Economic Trends and author of The End of Work, points to the civil society as the sector of economic promise worldwide. As technology and the information age reduce workforce needs in the manufacturing sector, the civil society can expand through the absorption of new workers. Rifkin asserts, “With government programs diminishing and the social net shrinking, an increasing burden is being placed on America's Third Sector to provide employment opportunities and a range of goods and services. Nothing could be more important at this juncture in American history than to strengthen the role of the non-profit world.” Strengthening civil society in the United States may also be a key to strengthening support for public education.

Educating to build social capital implies several strategies within and beyond schools: civic education, the democratization of schooling, and participation by students in the civil society. Civic education extends past the notion of helping students develop a basic understanding of government. Civic education also involves an exploration of the ways in which learners can participate in democratic life. Democratic life can be modeled in democratic schools, where the processes of governance, curriculum, and instruction are based on democratic ideals. Across the nation, service learning efforts furnish a strong example of how students may participate in the broader civic life of their communities. From environmental clean-ups to student-initiated programs on behalf of elderly shut-ins, service education can connect students to local civic life in meaningful ways. “Teaching children the value of service and the importance of creating social capital in their own communities is being viewed as a learning tool to prepare the next generation for its responsibilities to the civil society,” Rifkin indicates (1996, p. 33).

When educating for the civil society becomes a major focus of public education, rather than an add-on, the democratic foundations of public schooling are reinforced. Henry Giroux, a professor of education at The Pennsylvania State University, emphasizes (1995), “By rebuilding public schools around a vision which celebrates civic service, substantive citizenship, and cultural democracy as the organizing principles of social life, educators and others can expand rather than restrict the spirit of democratic public life.”

No easy answers exist to address concerns regarding support for public education. But an emphasis on strengthening communities both within and beyond schools may in turn foster the public's commitment to education. Civic education, democratic schooling, and service education all offer promising paths to building American social capital. Furthermore, schools must strive to communicate their successes to the larger society. Here again, educators can teach by example. By participating actively and visibly in the community, and by inviting community participation in the life of the schools, educators can demonstrate the values that they teach.

Viewing Educational Decisions Through the Lens of Democracy

“A democracy cannot be a democracy if the people living in it take it for granted,” Jesse Goodman avows. Similarly, public education cannot thrive without a collective social commitment to educating children to use their minds, hearts, and voices in a democratic manner. As distinct trends point to fragile support for public schools, policymakers, educators, families, and students must revisit the elements upon which public schools were founded.

The future of public education depends upon not only state and federal policies, but also the thousands of daily decisions in school communities. Decision makers must consider fundamental questions when they evaluate education innovations, from new instructional materials to school funding proposals: Is this innovation consistent with the democratic purpose of schooling? Does it support the common good of all children? Does it uphold accountability and encourage public participation in education? Does it ultimately strengthen society?

To ask such questions sincerely is to sustain the democratic experiment that is the United States of America.

Readers are invited to enter the ASCD educational issues forum on democracy and education and participate in an electronic discussion at http://www.ascd.org.

Who Is the Public?: The Changing U.S. Population

Tools for Finding Common Ground in Educational Reform

Where ASCD Stands

Policy Questions

References

Apple, M.W., and J.A. Beane. (1995). Democratic Schools. Alexandria, Va: ASCD.

Center on National Education Policy. (1996). Do We Still Need Public Schools? Bloomington, In: Phi Delta Kappa.

Chandler, C., and R. Morin (October 14, 1996). “Prosperity's Imbalance Divides U.S.” The Washington Post.

Darling-Hammond, L. (1996) “The Right to Learn and the Advancement of Teaching: Research, Policy, and Practice for Democratic Education.” Educational Researcher 25, 6: 5–17.

Dewey, J. (1900/1990). The School and Society. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

DuBois, W.E.B. (1902). The Negro Artisan. Atlanta: Atlanta University Press.

Gerzon, M. (1996). A House Divided: Six Belief Systems Struggling for America's Soul. New York: Putnam.

Giroux, H. (1995). Schooling and the Crisis of Democracy. (Unpublished manuscript).

Gutmann, A. (1987). Democratic Education. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

Hodgkinson, H.L. (January 1996). Bringing Tomorrow Into Focus: Demographic Insights into the Future. Washington, D.C.: Center for Demographic Policy, Institute for Educational Leadership.

Jennings, J. (1996). “Are We Giving Up on Our Public Schools?” Principal 75,1: 37–38.

Johnson, J. (1995). Assignment Incomplete: The Unfinished Business of Education Reform. (A Report from Public Agenda). Washington, D.C.: Public Agenda.

Mathews, D. (1996). Is There A Public For Public Schools? Dayton, Ohio: Kettering Foundation Press.

Putnam, R. (1995). “Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital.” Journal of Democracy. 6, 1: 65–78.

Rifkin, J. (January 31, 1996). “Preparing the Next Generation For the Civil Society.” Education Week. 44, 33.

Rifkin, J. (1995). The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era. New York: Putnam.

U.S. Bureau of the Census. (May 1995). Sixty-Five Plus In The United States. (A Statistical Brief). Available http://www.census.gov/socdemo/www/agebrief.html.

U.S. Department of Education. (1996). The Baby Boom Echo. (A Back to School Special Report). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education.

Resources

ASCD Resources. A number of ASCD resources, including the new video series Building Support for Public Education, address public education and democracy. For more information, contact the ASCD Call Service Center at 1-800-933-2723.

ASCD on the World Wide Web. Enter the ASCD Web at http://www.ascd.org for more information on education policy issues and to participate in a forum on democracy and education.

Organizations

• Institute for Democracy in Education, 119 McCracken Hall, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701-2979, Telephone: 614-593-4531
• The Common Enterprise, 2321 Grove #, Boulder, CO 80302, Telephone: 303-939-8605, FAX: 303-449-0608, http://www.cpn.org/sections/affiliates/common_enterprise.html
• Corporation for National Service, 1201 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20525, Telephone: 202-606-5000