大象传媒

The first thing to reflect on is this: Public schools gather everyone. All are invited. There is no test you need to pass, no amount of money or influence or fame you must possess to be allowed in. Do you know how rare that is in the United States today?

This has made public schools the place where people from all backgrounds and circumstances have come together to learn. It is where parents have volunteered and, regardless of their political bent, have worked alongside other parents for a common purpose.

The 20th-century education reformer recognized that public schooling was not only about gaining skills and knowledge that would benefit individuals but it also helped prepare youth for a communal role. As scholar Tracy L. Steffes put it in her book School, Society & State: A New Education to Govern Modern America, 1890-1940, Dewey insisted that the 鈥渢raining of democratic citizens would not come from abstract study of government or political obligations but must be rooted in the social relations and experience of the school itself.鈥�

In other words, the experience of school鈥攏ot just the curriculum or the facts learned鈥攊s the thing. That is now . I have a personal and professional stake in public schools: I am a former PTA mom. I am a volunteer mentor to public school students in grades three to eight. I am an education journalist who has spent more than 30 years writing about K鈥�12 and higher education. I am also the product of K鈥�12 public schools, and even in high school served as a student representative to the New Milford, Connecticut, Board of Education.

Growing up as I did with parents who were practically kids themselves鈥攖hey were 17 when I was born鈥攕chool presented itself as a beautiful, steadying force. I had been enrolled in four different school systems by sixth grade. But I could count on teachers, classmates, and the regular hours spent at tan Formica-topped school desks. Each school I attended had its vibe. In one we baked bread to learn math and wrote reports in real black ink with fountain pens. In another, we read the textbook and answered questions at the end of the chapter. But they all had the comforting and familiar rituals that marked a day鈥攈omeroom to recess to dismissal鈥攁nd the year with its marking periods and vacations and much-anticipated field day in late spring.

You got to know kids and became friends, sometimes for simple reasons鈥攍ike that they said something nice about your lunchbox or you let them borrow a pencil. In high school I learned that the nerdy guys were hilarious and, as my kids would put it, 鈥渁 good hang.鈥� I suspect their politics were different from mine, but I didn鈥檛 know or need to find out. It didn鈥檛 matter. What mattered was that they donned handsewn clown costumes to help me out with my Clowns Around business or would listen to the Rolling Stones and talk for hours. I remember being with these same guys in Advanced Placement English, and even though things at home were rough, I thought about how happy I was. It was largely because school worked.聽

School was the place where, as a kid, I could decide things for myself, including who my friends were, what I cared about, and how hard I was willing to work to succeed. I also learned other things. I would run for class president and lose after one of those guy friends, who was also running, spread a false rumor that I wanted to get rid of music in the cafeteria at lunch (who would actually do that?). It was a lesson in the power of misinformation. He also lost.

A lot happens in school that is not about lesson plans or curriculum. School is about relationships, about people trying to improve themselves and connect with others, and, through those connections, build a community. I find the questions and problems of education riveting. This is why I have spent 30+ years trying to make sense of how schools achieve their goals (or don鈥檛) and the roles they play in our lives. As a journalist, I am not precious or misty-eyed about school. I understand the shortcomings and the trendy ideas that end up broken on the floor.聽

But the debate across the country right now is not actually about education. It is neither rooted in a passion for the success of all children nor about what skills and knowledge students need to become contributing adults and citizens. It is not even actually concerned with differing beliefs about how we raise our own children and instill in them moral and social values. 

Rather, we are witnessing the hijacking of public education by a This is playing out in passed by legislatures and local school boards. As a nation we may be committed to principles of access and equity, but some, carrying the flag of 鈥減arents鈥� rights,鈥� are demanding control over , aloud in class, which , and even whether a teacher may use a child鈥檚 preferred name or pronoun in school.

With so much conflict, it can feel as though public education itself is up for renegotiation. And that is the goal. By peppering public schools with attacks, the far right seeks to sow doubt in the fundamental value of public education. Why, they ask, do we need public schools at all? Why not do as did in 2022鈥攁nd states like Florida, Iowa, Utah, Arkansas, and others have since embraced鈥攁nd create , a type of education savings account. Such plans put money into an account or on a debit card for parents to spend on education expenses in lieu of sending children to public school.聽It has triggered a furious conflict over the 鈥減rivatization鈥� of public education.

This should not come as a surprise. Public schools carry the weight of our cultural differences. Even though, for more than a century, they have been nonpartisan gathering places and a center of civic life in the United States, they have spurred debate. Often, the friction has been over disappointing test scores, funding formulas (do school systems rely too much on property taxes?), or disagreements over how math or history should be taught. 

In combing through old magazines, I was struck by how often we have raised alarms about our 鈥渢roubled鈥� public schools. A headline in the March 1947 issue of Ladies鈥� Home Journal warns 鈥淥ur Schools Are in Danger.鈥� A story in the February 1971 issue of Parents鈥� Magazine could have been written at almost any time in the previous century. Titled 鈥淪chools in Trouble,鈥� it promised a 鈥渉ard-hitting analysis of the failures of public education.鈥�

What is happening now, however, is not your typical debate over the institution鈥檚 shortcomings. Rather, this is a move by the far right to use public schools to gain political power. The campaign by extremists ignores the messy job of educating every single child, regardless of background, circumstance, or academic ability. Instead, it seizes on the convenient fact that schools touch everyone. When you control schools, you control society.

In the face of far-right extremist groups like Moms for Liberty, 鈥渟chool moms鈥濃�攐rdinary parents around the country who have made themselves experts in school board policy, library science practice, state legislation, campaign finance, and who have even recruited or run for school board seats themselves鈥攈ave become our public education heroes. I have watched moms who once (and still do) supply snacks for sports matches and organize wrapping paper fundraisers also start Facebook groups that become 501c3 nonprofits. They are in the fight鈥攆or the long haul.

There are key things people who care about public education can do. First: Realize that school boards matter. Mark Sirota, a long-time trustee of the Upper Dublin School District board in Pennsylvania, tells me that his board 鈥渄raws a pretty hard and fast line between governance and management,鈥� meaning they hire the administrators and 鈥渢rust them to do their job.鈥� As a result, said Sirota, 鈥淥ur school board does not really get involved in curriculum. At all.鈥�

But that is not true everywhere. In many locales, he says, 鈥淧eople think that school boards are really all about the curriculum.鈥� Where school boards have been 鈥渇lipped鈥� to far-right control, activist board members have passed policies restricting teaching materials and library books, mandated policies around bathrooms and pronouns, even controlled what teachers can hang on classroom walls.聽 So it matters to be informed and to vote.聽

Far-right boards can get installed because of low-voter turnout in elections (I have seen turnouts of less than 10% yield this) or voters being uniformed about candidates, enabling far-right PACs to spend enough to gain name recognition for their picks. Plus: Extremists will show up and vote. It also matters to attend school board meetings and voice support for public education. 

Apply the same practice to your state legislature. In the current 2024 session, for example, EveryLibrary identified representing 鈥渓egislation of concern鈥� whose passage, they assert, 鈥渨ould allow for criminal prosecution of librarians, educators, higher ed. faculty, and museum professionals.鈥� That does not count bills around vouchers and education savings accounts鈥攐r other ways state legislatures threaten school operations. Last May, for example, the allowing school districts to replace counselors with unlicensed religious chaplains. It is critical to pay attention.

Yet support for public schools begins at the local level. Much has been made of the poor showing last November of candidates backed by Moms for Liberty. in Pennsylvania was among the high-profile losses for the extremist group. But it did not happen without tremendous grassroots organizing. Kate Nazemi, co-founder with retired high school English teacher Katherine Semisch of , credited 鈥渁 movement led by small clusters of women鈥� for flipping the school board back.聽

Nazemi鈥檚 group built a website with resources, constantly shared information about the impact of school board policies, communicated with groups like the ACLU, issued calls to action, and produced informative blog posts and newsletters. Although pro-public education forces succeeded in November, Nazemi said there is no time to rest. 鈥淭his is precisely when the resistance digs in and makes their plans for how they will flip it in 2025,鈥� she says.聽

Rather, the organization is using this moment to deepen support for 鈥渢hat delicious goal鈥濃�攖hat 鈥渁ll kids deserve to belong, learn, and thrive in outstanding schools鈥�; share the threats; and create a plan for, as Nazemi says, 鈥渉ow we will collectively move together.鈥� One surprising tool to deepen their coalition has been to host welcoming community events like ice cream socials and, recently, candle-making. Crafting, Nazemi says, 鈥渋s a way into somebody鈥檚 heart, and it鈥檚 a way for people to feel loved and connected.鈥�

That softness allows people to 鈥渟hare difficult truths,鈥� she says. The aim at events is not to change people鈥檚 minds. But the community-building experience offers its own message, which is, she says, 鈥淲e all do better when everyone does better.鈥�
This is an adapted excerpt from by Laura Pappano. Copyright 2024.  Excerpted with permission by Beacon Press.

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Laura Pappano is an award-winning journalist and author who has written about K-12 and higher education for more than 30 years. A former education columnist for The Boston Globe, Pappano has written about education for The New York Times, The Hechinger Report, Harvard Education Letter, The Washington Post, USA Today, and The Christian Science Monitor, among other publications. She is the author or co-author of three books: The Connection Gap: Why Americans Feel So Alone, Playing with the Boys: Why Separate is Not Equal in Sports, and Inside School Turnarounds. Connect:

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