Anti-Public : How Elite Discourse Harms Public Education (and What We Can Do About It)

Consider this: Restrictions placed by state legislatures on what schools can teach about America's history of conquest and enslavement. Broad bans enacted by local school boards that remove meaningful books from school curricula and the shelves of libraries. Court rulings that muddy the distinction between what counts as private versus public expressions of religion in public school settings and that open the door to publicly funded religious education. All of these recent actions chip away at the foundation of public education in America. But how did we get here? Decades of elite public discourse (talk and text) about public education helped to bring us to this point. Much of this conversation is anti-public. It includes statements by major elected officials, education advocacy organizations, journalists in mainstream press outlets, and other influential actors. Chennault casts light on the cultural and political processes at work and challenges the unquestioned assumptions beneath the surface of this discourse, with the hopes that we can transform and strengthen public education.