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Why Public Schools? Whose Public Schools? NewSouth Books This book is a sequel to a Kettering Foundation study of the relationship between American citizens and public education. The study found that many people no longer believe that public schools are their schools. Although citizens believe that the country needs a system of public education, they are torn between their sense of civic responsibility and their instinct to do what is best for children. Reluctantly, many are deciding that public education doesn't provide the instruction their youngsters need. People are also concerned about public schools because they have an important role to play in their community. Yet civic leaders describe themselves as shut out of a meaningful relationship.
Reviews “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.” “David Mathews looks to the nineteenth-century past in six southwest Alabama counties—Clarke, Mobile, Baldwin, Washington, Choctaw, and Monroe—to discover why and how frontier communities came together to build schools. Meticulously researched and reasonably argued, Why Public Schools? Whose Public Schools? shows the involvement of the community in the public schools of the community. In a casual storytelling style, Mathews introduces the leaders and gives the history of education in Alabama, often pointing out national and regional comparisons and making analogies with current problems. The ideas presented—and the challenge offered—should be the focus of community discussions on local schools not only in Alabama but across the nation.” “One of the most compelling issues in public education involves what it means for schools to be public. Are they public in funding or public in oversight and control? Are they public in the values they convey or in the standards they set? Are they public in deciding curriculum or only in access to space? David Mathews probes these issues in 19th-century Alabama in ways that no one else has attempted. And he provides lessons from the past that can inform the present and future.”
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