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To understand the nature of the continuing “crisis in public education” is to recognize that public schools in America are embedded in a society in which multiple tensions confront schools and other core institutions. These multiple tensions are generated by several larger crises, including a crisis of social and political democracy, a crisis of capitalism, and a crisis of personal well-being.
The crisis of our social and political democracy is exemplified by race-, age- and gender-based inequities and by a persistent view that government functions in the interests of large corporate structures. What has been lost is a sense of the common or public good. In turn, many citizens have withdrawn from the public arena (in the belief that elections are purchased by monied interests), and schools are evaluated by the extent to which they enhance the personal rather than the common good.
Economic globalism, driven by the reinvestment needs of a capitalist economy, has generated profound tensions as productivity and efficiency have come to dominate economic decision-making. The idea of the global economy is suffused with an aura of inevitability, suggesting that no one is in charge. This obscures the role that individual decisions have played in creating the current economic structure. In turn, schools are admonished to produce workers who possess those qualities which will contribute to corporate success in the international marketplace.
The crisis of personal well-being, a profound social phenomenon, has been created, in part, by political alienation, by personal or family economic insecurity, and by perceptions that core values have eroded. Thus, the search for solutions to the “crisis in education” has had intensely personal overtones. Alternatives to public schools have become popular strategies as families attempt to cope with these multiple crises even though many are beyond the reach of the school.
The demands on public schools generated by these crises have produced an extraordinary variety of school improvement efforts and also a variety of public attitudes and expectations regarding public education. While it may be unreasonable to expect that public schools can ameliorate the injustices of racial inequity, social class divisions, the consequences of economic globalism, and the perceived unresponsiveness of the political system, the impact of these circumstances on schools is profound.
This monograph explores the complex dimensions of public school life and creates a framework within which the “crisis of public education” can be explored and understood. The document is rich with data, offers a broad perspective on the possibilities for school improvement, and provides candid commentary on some of the more intractable problems which confront public schools.
Russ Allen, PhD
Ken Kickbusch, PhD