Free Republic

The Supreme Court’s decisions this month involving public education have stirred new debate about the future of public, secular education in this country — but such concerns are not new to advocates of publicly operated and funded public schools.... ...Are common schools dying in America? The common school movement began in the 1800s, an effort to create publicly funded schools for all students....Many progressives across our fractured nation embrace the religious right on one issue: burying the ideal of common schooling....Desegregation advocates, for instance, created thousands of inventive magnet schools, which to this day attract multiracial blends of children, enticed...