Public schools are public. They are paid for by taxes and overseen by elected boards. While there are many reasons for schooling, we provide public schools because the public has a stake in the development of democratic citizens. This is the primary justification for school taxes and public oversight. Public schools are where we, as a public, choose how to educate our children.
This simple fact complicates our debate over such issues as critical race theory and how and when to introduce questions about gender and sexuality. On one hand, conservatives proclaim the centrality of parental rights while, on the other hand, liberals defend the professional autonomy of educators. Of course, a good public education must draw on the expertise of educators and scholars. And of course, because parents — I am one — entrust schools with their children, our public schools must respect families.
But the public schools ultimately are accountable to neither parents nor educators. They are accountable to citizens. Our society invests in educating all children because we, as Americans, have a stake in their education. We determine how to socialize the next generation into our nation’s culture and values. We can argue. We can disagree. We can vote school board members in or out. And we should. But the “we” are not parents nor educators, but we the people.
Today, Republicans want to allow parents to opt their child out of curriculum they disagree with. That is wrong. While reasonable accommodation can be made, citizens have the responsibility to educate children even when doing so challenges parents’ values. This does not mean schools can become totalitarian, but to live in society, we must accept society’s claim on us. To give into the rhetoric of parental rights is to privatize public education. It presumes schools contract with parents rather than sustain the social contract.
Yet conservatives are right: What the public schools teach are political decisions. Within the parameters of state and federal law, elected leaders have the right and responsibility to determine what our schools teach. This means that it is reasonable for citizens in school board meetings, and state legislators, to ask how we want to educate our young people about American history, about sexuality and gender identity, and any other subject. As a parent, I do not always agree with the choices made by my district. As a citizen, I have a voice in challenging those choices.
Democrats, too, are correct that we should respect the professional knowledge and training of our educators. But in a democracy, it is we, as citizens, who determine how much discretion to afford professionals in schools. There are good arguments about why citizens should respect expertise, but those are arguments. Experts advise citizens, not the other way around. When educators are teaching curricula or espousing values at odds with the community’s, whether from the left or right, citizens should feel comfortable to speak up. Indeed, in a democracy, it is their duty.
Does that mean that citizens are always correct? Of course not; that is why we delegate decisions to more knowledgeable experts. It means that the public schools are ours. As a parent, I am often frustrated that the public schools reflect values and teach material with which I disagree, but as a citizen I recognize the community’s authority. At home, I might offer my children other perspectives — and in a free country that is my right. Publicly, I might express my discontent at meetings or by voting. As a member of a shared democracy, however, I cannot exempt my child from the community.
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