Will schools ever be free from the chains of state control?

• Author: Gryphon, Marie
• Position: Education

AMERICA'S educational history is the story of a conflict between two strong traditions. On the one hand is academic freedom. Control once was decentralized, and educational institutions were voluntary, cooperative efforts between parents, teachers, students, and charitable organizations and local governments. Parents sought options for their children that harmonized with their religious and cultural traditions, and constitutional protections--including freedom of expression, religion, and association--helped to protect diverse institutions from state repression.

On the other hand, there is state-controlled schooling. The rise of the public school accompanied large waves of immigration in the 19th century. Government control was thought necessary in order to assimilate the children of immigrants, and to avoid conflicts over state subsidization of minority religious concerns. In one respect, this latter tradition largely has carried the day; well over 80% of kids now attend public schools.

Nonetheless, an ethos of educational freedom still exists. While most children attend public schools, the Constitution protects the right of alternative private ones to exist, and the right of parents to choose them. Many feel that mothers and fathers are better able to make childrearing decisions--including those relating to education--than the state.

In the wake of the Supreme Court's Zelman v. Simmons-Harris ruling upholding school choice programs, more and more families are questioning whether state control over education really is best. Decades of failure in the inner cities have contributed to the recent momentum against standard state solutions to social problems, and the success of choice programs in Milwaukee and elsewhere has challenged the conventional wisdom that families with low incomes cannot or will not make good decisions regarding their offspring's education.

Before the mid 19th century, schooling was a local undertaking, funded by tuition, charity, public monies, or some combination of the three. This range of schooling options met most citizens' needs. Tuition-charging venues in particular produced curricular and other innovations that spurred the young nation's economic growth. Residents of small towns and rural areas in the North attended semipublic district schools, which generally allowed poor students to attend for free while charging tuition to others. In the South, teachers selected temporary locations or were engaged by a group of parents to give instruction for a term. Most children in Northern rural areas and a substantial number of white Southern children attended class two or three months a year. Parents had considerable influence due to the custom of housing teachers in student homes. Parents also played a significant role in the selection of staff and textbooks.

This haphazard mix produced a surprisingly well-educated populace. By 1787, free male literacy was about 65%, and probably greater than 80% in New England. By 1850. only one in 10 people identified themselves as illiterate on the U.S. census. Enrollment rose steadily during these years, particularly among girls. Findings from an 1821 annual report of...