The history of America’s public school system is essential to know in order to understand the issues that we face today in terms of equity and social justice. It is because of our nation’s past that we have many of the problems that we have in public education. Once we understand past attitudes toward social equality in education and the way that these attitudes over time, we can make informed opinions about some of the similar topics that are debated today.
When the American public education system was first being developed, it was clearly flawed. In the first part of Mondale’s “School: The Story of American Public Education,” we see that initial development of public schooling between 1770 and 1890. During this time, America was a newly independent country, so the state and federal governments were starting from scratch. At first, only large cities and towns were required to build schools, and those schools were not free of cost. Those who had access to schooling were usually very affluent, and families often only sent boys to school.
To leaders like Thomas Jefferson, this posed a problem to the survival of democracy. He believed that in order for the American democratic system to work, its citizens had to be educated. As a lawmaker, he mandated three years of education for both men and women, and created programs for men to be able to further their education through a high school and college level.
Massachusetts was one of the first states to offer The Common School, where schools were funded both by taxes and by a smaller fee to the student’s families. This was pushed by the first Secretary of Education, Horace Mann. He also pushed for the improvement of public schools. The profession of teaching originally was not a reputable career. Teaching positions were either held by men who were not hired to perform more respected duties, or they were held by women who did not have adequate training. As part of Mann’s work, he developed a common curriculum of knowledge that all students were required to be taught, and required teachers to be better trained. This was one of the first steps at creating a more progressive public school system.
One of the next steps to creating a more socially-equal public school system was to address religious teachings within schools. Original public schools taught their students the Protestant religion. During this time, there were still a large amount of immigrants coming into the country from Europe, who practiced different religions from those that were taught in schools. This posed an ethical problem because those immigrants who were not Protestant did not want their tax dollars spent on Protestant education. This is what began the push for removing religious teachings from public schools.
Along with the respect for religion, came the concern for racial discrimination within schools. During this time, slavery was still in effect in the South. Because of this institutionalized racism, black children were denied from enrolling in schools with white children. This began a movement to integrate public schools, and in 1855 school segregation was abolished in Massachusetts. However, it would be a long time until this reached the rest of the country.
As we fast forward to the mid-1900s, segregation was still in effect in 17 states. The idea that schools were “separate but equal,” was proving to be untrue. Activists from the NAACP began to take note of the resources available to black students versus white students. While in some cities the teachers in black schools were just as qualified and those in white schools, their books and other resources were outdated and inadequate. This lead to the Brown vs. Board of Education case in 1954, in which the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Brown, which lead to the desegregation of public schools.
While the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling made it illegal to deny black children from enrolling in white schools, this did not stop much of the white population from resisting the change. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was in response to this resistance. This stated that schools would lose federal funding if they refused to comply with the 1954 Supreme Court decision.
The racial inequality in education did not end there. In the southwest of the United States, Mexican-American students were encouraged to leave their Mexican cultures behind, and to assimilate into white-American culture. This inequality was also apparent across the country with other non-English speaking students. This lead to the fight for bilingual education.
There were also significantly less opportunities for women than there were for men in school. Feminist activists and organizations fought for equal rights in school opportunities, which lead to Title IX in 1972. This law was similar to the Civil Rights Act in which it removed funding from organizations which discriminated against gender.
The movement toward social equality and justice within the public school system is an ever-changing conversation. Since the beginning of public schooling in the United States, there has been continuous evolution in regard to religion, race, gender, ability, and socioeconomic status. As time progresses, general ideas of what is progressive eventually becomes obsolete. For example, when schools were first integrated by race, it was opposed by a large amount of the population, but today, the idea of segregated schooling seems ridiculous and overtly racist.
Some of the issues that public education faces today involves the socioeconomic status of students in the public education system. It is discussed in the final part of “School: The Story of American Public Education,” that children who come from low-income families are often forced to be enrolled in low-performing public schools because of where they live. This brings up subjects such as standards-based curriculum, school choice, and school vouchers. Debates surrounding these ideas were relevant in the 1990s, and are still relevant today.
It is arguable that these ideas are not only not beneficial to these students, but they can also cause the degradation of public schools over time. While I cannot say with certainty that eliminating standards-based curriculum and school choice would benefit all students, I believe that years from now we may look back at debates regarding socioeconomic status the same way we look at unequal rights to education based on race or gender.
Karen About Kids 