Formal education has always belonged to the privileged classes.
Even in the United States, early examples of tax-supported education like the Boston Latin School were open only to white boys. Only in the 1960s were US public schools open to boys and girls of every background. x
Not until the 1960s did US public schools truly become legally open to all children—boys and girls of every ethnic, racial, and economic background.
However, even today, the quality of education differs from state to state and even from neighborhood to neighborhood.
Because public schools differ in quality and effectiveness, some people argue that they should be phased out in favor of private schools.
This is a bogus argument.
Public education is as essential to our national security as our system of national defense. They are not expendable.
Who’s in charge?
State legislators are responsible for the public schools in their states. If some public schools are “failing,” the answer is not to delegate their responsibility to the business sector.
Numerous changes are needed to bring all public schools up to a reasonable standard of success.
One urgently needed change is to vote out state legislators who have failed in their responsibilities.
Let’s not return to the days when education belonged only to the privileged classes.