We've been arguing about public schools for a long time in America. They are supposed to be OUR schools, supported by our taxes, free to our children, and delivering a quality education to each child.
But the quality from district to district and school to school is frequently in dispute, and for some people, the answer is to take money and/our students from the under-performing schools.
Derek Black, lawyer and professor, sees public education as the cornerstone of our democracy. And he sees some of the reform efforts as chipping away at that cornerstone, a case he makes in the book Schoolhouse Burning: Public Education and the Assault on American Democracy.
The author visits with details on his thinking.