Why Public Schools? Whose Public Schools?: What Early Communities Have to Tell Us

by David Mathews

Book Overview

Are the public schools the public's schools? And if they need to be, what is the public? Public schools today often mean little other than schools paid for by tax revenue. If that is all they are,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1588381234
• ISBN13: 9781588381231
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: NewSouth Books
• Length: 232 Pages

Customer Reviews

A thoughtful, highly recommended historical survey

Why Public Schools? Whose Public Schools?: What Early Communities Have To Tell Us by David Mathews (former President of the University of Alabama, former Secretary of the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and current Trustee and President of the Kettering Foundation) is a close and analytical look at how frontier communities such as those in Alabama came together to build their schools, extracting lessons from history that can be applicable to the present and the future conditions of education. From scrutinizing past attitudes, to the profound impact of the Free Public School Act of 1854, to unintended consequences of the state system of public schools, and more, Why Public Schools? Whose Public Schools? is a thoughtful, highly recommended historical survey of the groundwork from which our current system originated -- with all its flaws and achievements.