Public education serves the public good

I read with interest the recent guest editorial by Patricia Patnode regarding school choice (“Iowa students and parents deserve school choice,“ Jan. 25.) It prompted me to reflect on why public schools matter and why supporting private education with public funds — whether with vouchers, “scholarships,” home schooling, or other models—serves the public less well.

To begin, money to private education is money taken from public schools. This raises concern about how far Iowa wants to go in diverting funding away from public schools to offer alternative educational options and what standard expectations need to be in place to ensure that we do not lose sight of education’s role in serving the public good.

I suggest at least three aspects of public education that support the public good: 1. developing an understanding of civic life and democratic government; 2. creating a sense of cohesion and understanding among the variety of people that make up our citizenry; 3. developing the analytical and critical thinking skills essential to navigating today’s information environment.

In an important document entitled “For the Common Good: Recommitting to Public Education in a Time of Crisis,” the Center for Education Policy states: “Our democracy depends on having educated citizens who understand political and social issues and who will exercise the vote, act to protect their rights and freedoms, and resist tyrants and demagogues.” This has been a standard of public education since the days of Horace Mann, who served as secretary to the Massachusetts State Board of Education (1837 to 1848) and advocated for public schools that would adhere to specific principles. Mann was reacting to the state of education in his day when schooling was often religious or home-based or exclusive. To paraphrase, he stated that education ought to be paid for by the public; that such schools should embrace children of all religious, social and ethnic backgrounds; that such education should be free of all sectarian religious influence; that such schools should embrace the spirit, methods and disciplines of a free society; and that such an education can only be provided by well-trained professional teachers. While we live in very different times, these principles still seem relevant.

Today, we live in a divided, divisive and polarized society. Some of this divisiveness may be a result of our remaining in our own ideological, ethnic, economic, and racial bubbles. A consequence of such isolation can be a lack of appreciation and understanding — or even fear — of those different from ourselves. That fear, at its worst, can translate into hatred. Public schools are often one of the first places where children have an opportunity to interact with, befriend, agree or disagree with, and understand people from backgrounds different from their own. Private education, including home schooling, can result in bringing students together only with others like themselves. It runs the risk of diminishing children’s opportunities for interactions and opportunities to grow in understanding and appreciation of people different from themselves. They can become the exclusive schools that Horace Mann saw in his time, whether based on religion or other societal dimensions.

We live in an information — and disinformation — universe that intensifies our divisiveness as a society. Just as the public good is not served well by isolating children from those different from themselves, so too the public good is not served by polarizing media or single-perspective information, regardless of the direction it leans. The media are not likely to change, and so it is important that we help children and young people become astute consumers of information. It is the role of public education to help students become skilled at discerning fact from opinion, recognizing bias, and seeking evidence-based information. Exposure to a variety of viewpoints and development of skills as critical readers, listeners and viewers are central reasons for public schools to be required to have libraries and qualified librarians who teach the skills of information literacy.

Finally, there is the question of what do we mean by the public good. Simply stated, serving the public good calls for us to think about our collective selves, not only our individual selves. Newsweek columnist Robert J. Samuelson once wrote, “We face a choice between a society where people accept modest sacrifices for a common goal or a more contentious society where groups selfishly protect their own benefits.”

Lillian Katz, University of Illinois, aptly stated: “We must recognize that the well-being of our own children is intimately linked to the well-being of all other people's children. After all, when one of our children needs life-saving surgery, someone else's child will perform it. When one of our children is harmed by violence, someone else's child will have committed it. The good life for our own children can be secured only if it is also secured for all other people's children.”

As we consider the future of public education in Iowa, let’s not lose sight of the importance of the public good. Prioritizing the public good may be our best solution to the problems of divisiveness that face us today—and the public good is well served when we support public education.

Jean Donham is a retired University of Northern Iowa professor living in Iowa City.

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