The Politics of American Education

Joel Spring

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781136881510
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Bildung Allgemein

Turning his distinctive analytical lens to the politics of American education, Joel Spring looks at contemporary educational policy issues from theoretical, practical, and historical perspectives. This comprehensive overview documents and explains who influences educational policy and how, bringing to life the realities of schooling in the 21st century and revealing the ongoing ideological struggles at play. Coverage includes the influence of global organizations on American school policies and the impact of emerging open source and other forms of electronic textbooks.

Thought-provoking, lucid, original in its conceptual framework and rich with engaging examples from the real world, this text is timely and useful for understanding the big picture and the micro-level intricacies of the multiple forces at work in controlling U.S. public schools. It is the text of choice for any course that covers or addresses the politics of American education.

Companion Website: The interactive Companion Website accompanying this text includes relevant data, public domain documents, YouTube links, and links to websites representing political organizations and interest groups involved in education.

Chapter 1
Introduction

The Politics of Education and the Politics of Knowledge

The politics of education explores one aspect of the general field of the politics of knowledge which is concerned with how knowledge is created and disseminated. Schools, along with the media, libraries, and the Internet, are central to the process of disseminating knowledge to the public. All aspects of the politics of education involve knowledge dissemination, including the governance structure of schools; media portrayal of educational issues; politicians; parents and parent organizations; special interest groups; foundations and think tanks; professional organizations; teachers unions; and the education industry.

The politics of education involves power struggles over three important questions:

• What knowledge is most worth teaching?

• What are the best instructional methods and school organization for teaching this knowledge?

• What should it cost to disseminate this knowledge?

The first question deals with the school curriculum and the politics of knowledge. The second question deals with teaching methods and school governance including highly debated topics such as choice, scripted lessons, progressive instructional methods, home schooling, charter schools, and a host of other issues. And the third question deals with how much a society is willing to spend on education; how money should be collected to support schools; and how money should be spent on education. The answers to these three questions elicit differing educational agendas from individuals and groups. These agendas provide the substance for potential political debates. These debates occur within a complex educational governance structure whose parameters are the world.

Educational Governance and Competing Voices

In the United States, the educational governance structure embraces political units ranging from the U.S. Congress and U.S. Department of Education to state governments to local school districts. In addition, there are many professional, business, political, special interest, and other organizations trying to influence what is taught in schools, how it is taught, and how much it will cost. In addition, as I explain in this book, many aspects of schooling are now globalized, including nations having similar educational ladders leading from primary school to post-secondary education; using the same international tests to compare their schools with other nations; and having the same educational goal of economic growth and supplying workers for global economic competition. Educational policies are also globalized through international organizations like the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, United Nations, and the World Bank. In general, educational professional organizations are international and provide opportunities for the global exchange of ideas. The educational landscape is dominated by multinational corporations which publish school materials and standardized tests, produce software, and manage for-profit schools and tutoring facilities. The scores from international science and math tests pit country against country as each country tries to win the knowledge race in the global economy.

What Do People Talk About When They Talk About Schools?

In Chapter 2, I will discuss the range of conflicting opinions about public schools, including those of parents, students, teachers, school administrators, foundations, interest groups, politicians, and the media. National media primarily and uncritically report the opinions of politicians who claim schools are failing and want to implement economic goals for education. In contrast, as discussed in Chapter 2, parents feel that their local schools are doing a good job. Also, school administrators stress the importance of outside factors affecting school achievement such as children’s poverty and health care, racial and economic segregation between and within schools, and the lack of bilingual teachers. Many teachers and students object to the current emphasis on standardized testing. Students want classes that are interesting and teachers who personalize their teaching methods, and a reduced reliance on standardized testing to measure learning. One question that emerges from Chapter 2 is why some voices are more influential than others in determining school policies.

For decades, politicians have harped on the role of education in preparing students for work or college. However, the media seldom report parental reaction to these statements. Today, a majority of politicians say that the curriculum should be organized to ensure American economic development in a global system and should prepare students to compete in a global labor market. While there are polls showing parental satisfaction with their local schools, I could not find one showing that parents want the public school curriculum designed to advance the United States in global economic competition. Maybe most parents do want the curriculum to be determined by the requirements of global economic competition. The important issue is that most parents and students were never asked and there is no direct way they can express their wishes. They can act indirectly by voting for school board members and state and federal representatives or by joining a politically active special interest group.

What educational ideas are espoused by these conflicting voices? Many politicians talk about educating students so that the U.S. economy can grow and compete globally. These same politicians want a test-driven school system where students, teachers, schools, school systems, states, and even national school systems are judged by the results of standardized testing. As noted in Chapter 2, only politicians, the wealthy, and some educators support assessment as the key to good schooling. Most students, teachers, and school administrators think this is a bad idea and believe other factors are more important. Their voices don’t seem to be heard by those making the decisions about schools, or if they are heard they are ignored. Parents, students, teachers, and school administrators espouse a diversity of educational ideas that are often in conflict with economic-oriented school policies.

From the Local to the Global in School Governance

Chapter 3 outlines the political arena in which public voices try to be heard. The chapter describes the complex structure of American schools from local school boards to state governance to federal power, along with a consideration of the political role of civil society and global influences. The chapter stresses the growing nationalization and centralization of decision-making. The growing centralization of educational control has occurred over time, particularly with the advent of federal categorical aid in the 1950s. Federal aid linked school policies to national policy objectives. For instance, No Child Left Behind strengthened the power of state education authorities over local schools. With federal demands in recent times to internationally benchmark standards and tests, the decision over the content of the curriculum has been moved to a global arena.

Civil Society and Schooling

Within the political arena described in Chapter 3, America’s civil society tries to influence educational policies. Civil society, as discussed in Chapter 4, is composed of special interest groups, professional organizations, teachers unions, foundations, and think tanks. American civil society has been traditionally organized around the religious principles of community service and a competitive marketplace of self-interested groups. However, some members of civil society have more money and connections than others and, therefore, are more influential. For instance, the funding and policy reports from the world’s richest foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, are currently having a significant impact on American school policies.

Politicians and Educational Ideologies ^*

Civil society organizations and politicians espouse a wide variety of educational ideas that impact school policies. As I describe in Chapter 5, these differing educational ideas encompass human capital economics; liberal and conservative cultural ideals; a belief in American exceptionalism; free market economics; regulated markets; multiculturalism and multilingualism; English-only; liberal and conservative religious values; progressive education; environmentalism; and arts-based schools. However, the majority of liberal and conservative Democrats and Republican politicians espouse the goals of human capital education, with variations in their educational agendas reflecting differing cultural values. As I explain in more detail in the last sections of this introductory chapter, human capital education is premised on the idea that investment in education will grow the economy and provide educated workers to help the nation compete in the global knowledge economy.

The Education Business: Making Money and Influencing Schools

Education business...

Table of contents

• Sociocultural, Political, and Historical Studies in Education
• Contents
• Preface
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 What Do People Talk About When They Talk About Schools?
• Chapter 3 From the Local to the Global in School Governance
• Chapter 4 Civil Society and Schooling
• Chapter 5 Politicians and Educational Ideologies
• Chapter 6 The Education Business
• Chapter 7 Politics of School Finance and the Economics of Education
• Chapter 8 Global Education Politics and the United States*
• Chapter 9 Political Control of Education in a Democratic Society
• Index