Preserving the “Public” in Public Education for the Sake of Democracy

Abstract

At the dawn of the 21st century, public education in the United States is undergoing intense, fundamental change, a "revolution" possibly as remarkable as the common school movement that gave rise to publicly supported schools. The past few decades has brought a host of neo-conservative education reforms. We have witnessed the emergence and rapid expansion of charter schools (Bulkley & Fisler, 2002; Center for Education Reform, 2005), the proliferation of private voucher plans in metropolitan areas