Public education in the United States

As a political science professor at SDSU, I regularly taught a course titled American Political Issues. It was a survey course that introduced students to a variety of issues that challenge our national government and competing policies that have been debated and approved over the years to resolve or better manage the issues. One of the issues included was education.

In my teaching regarding education, I was quick to emphasize that, unlike many other major political, economic and social welfare issues, education has continued to be the primary domain of local and state governments although the national government plays an important role in providing funding for K-12 and post-secondary education and in imposing standards or requirements that accompany the funding.

I used a chronology framework in my discussion of education in the US. I noted that education in the US began as private and religious education and with time became primarily but not exclusively public and secular. While some form of public funded and secular education in the US emerged in the New England states during the early 1800s, it was not until after the Civil War that states earnestly began to legislate compulsory free public education for our nation’s youth. This was in response to the growing realization expressed by Jefferson in the1760s that our nation’s democracy and economy were dependent upon an educated citizenry. Other supporters of compulsory public education of youth viewed it as a means of protecting children from child abuse at home and in the labor market.

South Dakota included a provision for free public education in the original text of the 1889 SD State Constitution and prohibited the payment of any public funds to support any religious organization.

Congress approved the Morrill Act in 1862 which provided states a funding source to create land grant universities. The Act had the effect of transforming higher education from elite private institutions dedicated to a liberal education in philosophy, religion, literature and the arts to public institutions emphasizing mechanical arts and agriculture. In response to public demands, public universities eventually adopted much of the private elite college curriculum and private elite colleges adopted much of the curriculum of public universities.

The evolution of public education in the US after the adoption of compulsory free education by the states involves a history of political struggle that is best seen as an ebb and flow rather than one of straight-line change. Free education in the early years was mostly limited to the primary grades and involved a limited curriculum of the famous three Rs- “reading, riting(sp) and rithmatic (sp).” Gradually with political pressure states began to add to the grade levels and expanded the curriculum to include a host of industrial arts, fine arts, social science, humanities, and natural science courses in addition to several extracurricular activities. Eventually, free public education included the “high” school as well as the “low” school grades 1-8 and eventually K-12 plus public sponsored post-secondary education. Today most states (South Dakota not included) include pre-school programs within the meaning of public free education.

Again, in response to political pressures public schools began to assume responsibilities that went beyond education of the child. These new responsibilities include nutrition programs, health care programs, mental health counseling, childcare programs and juvenile correction. In response to a 1975 federal mandate, public schools began to embrace the task of educating all children regardless of the child’s physical and mental condition. Also, in response to an early 1970s federal mandate, public schools were required to equalize extracurricular opportunities between the sexes.

The sharpest conflicts found in the history of education in the US have revolved around racial segregation and religion in public schools.

Racially segregated public schools were accepted under the separate but equal doctrine until the 1954 Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka Kansas ruling in which the US Supreme Court unanimously held that racial segregation in public elementary and secondary education is inherently unequal. It would be more than a decade before the ruling began to be finally enforced. Even today defacto racial segregation of our public schools is not uncommon.

Religion in our public schools came under fire in the early 1960s when the US Supreme Court ruled that school sponsored prayer and Bible reading violated the church-state separation provision of the First Amendment as applied to the states through the 14th Amendment. Today school sponsored prayer and state funded religious school programs have resurfaced with US Supreme Court blessing.

Funding of public education is a perennial issue in South Dakota and all other states. Property taxes provide the local source of funding while sales, income and other taxes provide the states’ source of funding. Federal funding, which hovers around 10% of all funding, is appropriated out of the general fund.

A common direction in state funding is for the state to increase its responsibility and the local district to assume a reduced responsibility. This trend is understood as the best means of equalizing education opportunities across school district boundaries. Acquiring adequate funding to maintain favorable student- teacher ratios and all the other expenses associated with quality education of the child is a part of the dynamics of political struggle. Of course, with this additional revenue comes more state rules governing public K-12 education such as social science, natural science and math standards.

Complicating the public-school funding issue is the demand of some citizens for public funding of private religious and secular school programs. This request is met by opposition from public school advocates who fear diversion of public funds to private education will reduce the funds available for pubic education.

Accompanying features of public funded education were state imposed school accreditation and teacher certification policies. Today, as home schooling grows in popularity there is drift toward nonaccountability as accreditation and certification requirements are lifted and student progress testing is dropped. Accountability has also come under criticism in our public schools with the abandonment of No Child Left Behind student progress reporting requirements. This lack of accountability is seen by some education experts as a cause of declining test scores of our K-12 students.

Voting is now underway for the election of a new member of the Brookings School District Board. The formal election date is Tuesday, June 2. As a past member and three-time president of the Brookings School Board, I know from experience that the issues surrounding the historical evolution of public education in the US outlined above persist today.

Whoever is elected to the Board will encounter demands to retreat from progress made in public education and other demands to further grow the purview of public education. It is a position of significant responsibility and opportunity to serve the education needs of our children and promote the strength of our democracy and economy. The election deserves our full participation. Our community, state and national future will be shaped by how well we educate our children today.