Why Public Schools? Whose Public Schools?

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.