Traditional public education is at a pivotal juncture in history. A structural divide generated by partisanship creates two major perspectives about America's schooling. This book takes the reader to the brink of the chasm that divides America's schooling. One perspective equips students with the capabilities for navigating precarious-balance, the other adheres to static-balance. These dynamically opposed iterations of balance are the origin of a battle to determine which perspective will control education, and, as a result, control citizenship, government, and individual rights. Throughout this discussion, the tactics and intentions of the foes of public schools are called-out for their devastating impact on teaching, learning, and social reality. This book is a clarion call to defend traditional public schools and their role as the launching pad for the intellectual autonomy and open futures that all US students deserve.
Jeff Swensson is a veteran educator who has ser4ved in public schools throughout the Midwest. He is the co-author or author of six books that focus on instruction, curriculum, leadership, finance, student learning, and contemporary issues in traditional public education.
Dedication Acknowledgements Table of Contents Prologue Introduction: Just Look Inside This Book and You Will See... Section One-Balance? Chapter 1: About Teeter-Totters and Educational Choice The History of US Education Is its Topography Parents and Caregivers A Small Piece of Democracy Chapter 2: The Common Good The Rule of Law About Free Market Education About-Face in the Marketplace Chapter 3: The Best Interests of... Informal and Formal Education Who Knows Better What Are Best Interests? Closely-Held Beliefs Know Best Interests Networks Know Best Interests Partisanship Knows Best Interests US Education Knows Best Interests Following a Long Arc to Best Interests Disrupting the Arc It's Not Education, It's Shopping! Buying Best Interests: Boutique-Ideology Chapter 4: Partisanship The Way Things Were Is the Way They're Supposed to Be When Enough Is Enough The Fly in the Ointment for Partisanship: Learning Where Learning Thrives Partisanship Can't Function Repairing Function: One-Faith Education Repairing Function: Push-Back Against the Arc The CRT Straw Man Adult-Centric Education Partisans Recoil For Partisans, the Present Is Downright Scary Certainty About What There Is to Fear Partisans Can See Clearly Now Chapter 5: I See These Threats Looking at Me Intellectual Autonomy Compelling State Interest The Outside-World Partisanship Accommodations Down a Fear-Filled Rabbit Hole To Restore Partisanship in US Education Chapter 6: Revolt of the Likeminded No Likeminded Parent Left Behind Limiting the Universe of Discourse Rejecting How to Think and the Common Good The Art of the Straw Man Orthodoxy Trumps Majority Rule Section Two-Deus Ex Machina in the Script for Partisanship Chapter 7: Preemptive Censorship Oh Where, Oh Where Has Thinking Gone? Discriminatory Thinking, Anyone? What If Preemption Doesn't Work? Chapter 8: Anarchic Dissent Anarchic Dissent Is as Partisanship Does The Ideological Foundation of Anarchic Dissent Public Dissonance Public Dissonance on Behalf of Parental Rights Anarchic Dissent: Ideological "Demo-Day" A Six-Pound Partisan Sledge Hammer A Twelve-Pound Partisan Sledge Hammer The Granddaddy of All Partisan Sledge Hammers The Anarchic Dissonance of "Liberty" Saving Public Education by Destroying It Chapter 9: Rights and US Education The Exclusive Rights of Partisanship The Right to Perpetual Winning Standardized Testing: Brass Knuckles in Partisan Boxing Gloves The Right to Determine Losers The Right to Defund Losers The Right to What-to-Think The Right to Dumb-Down Learning A Circular Bill of Rights: Partisanship's Gift to Education Section Three-The Foes of Traditional Public Education Chapter 10: Partisan Education More to Ideology than Meets the Eye Partisan Education: A Transactional Relationship Transactional Relationships Are Exclusionary A Pox on the House of Intellectual Autonomy The Ethos of Partisan Education Partisan Education: What Is Right and What Is True Orthodoxy: Limitless or Limited? Weaponizing Partisan Education A Retreat from Conscience Commitment to Preemption Retreating Is "Winning" Money: The Partisanship Weapon for Choice Just How Much Does All This Cost? Section Four-Religion, Courts, the Feds, and Public School Chapter 11: Evolution-The Faithful Sound the Alarm Faithful Partisanship, Evolution, and Learning What Science Says Alarming Court Decisions Whose Faith for Public Education? Putting Faith in the Courts Chapter 12: Schools and Rights-Burdens, Exposure, and Compulsory Conduct A Two-Prong Test When Public Education Meets the US Constitution The US Supreme Court and US Education The First Amendment Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier Board of Education v. Pico The Third Amendment The Fourteenth Amendment Chapter 13: To Reform or Not to Reform? The Destination Is Reform. Are We There Yet? I'm Free to Be Me and You're Free to Be Me Partisans Are the public Partisan Things Are Not Public Things When Reform Is Not Partisan The Amish and Reform In the Aftermath of Yoder Hasidic Communities and Reform In the Aftermath of Yeshiva Education The Compelling Interests of Partisanship SEL: A Fear-Inducing Bogeyman The Unheralded Resource for Partisanship A Comeuppance for Partisanship Section Five-US Education: Journey or Destination? Chapter 14: The Compass Rose: Purpose The Journey of Constitutional Democracy The Journey of Civic Respect The Journey of Citizenship Education The Effects of Citizenship Education Necessary Neutrality Balance-as-Equity The Journey of Open Futures The Journey of "We" in the Common Good Chapter 15: To Defend Public Education-Good Dissent Good Dissent and Public Things The Role of Good Dissent Is the Role of Public Education Section Six-Across the Great Divide Chapter 16: The Chasm "Self" Government...or...Self-Government Static-Balance...or...Precarious-Balance Universal Singularity...or...Government that Works Chapter 17: Critical Questions Question #1: Is Social Reality Fixed or Unfixed? Question #2: Is Liberty Constraint or Coercion? Constraint and Coercion in Partisan Education Constraint and Coercion in Traditional Public Education Question #3: Does Education Assume a Value of Justice? Epilogue
In Defending Public Education, Jeff Swensson firmly establishes himself as one of the great educational thought leaders of the 21st century and champion for traditional public education. Throughout his prior books, and achieving a triumphant denouement in this one, Swensson demonstrates that the purpose of education is to teach students not what-to-think but rather how to think on behalf of the common good. In so doing, Swensson debunks the popular antagonistic voices that claim authenticity simply because they speak loudly and at great length. A "must read" for all who believe in public education.--Michael Shaffer, associate professor of Educational Leadership - Clinical, Ball State University, Indiana In Defending Public Education, Jeff Swensson offers a crystallizing lens on the latest ideologically motivated attacks against traditional public education. Whereas the aim of "traditional" public education in a pluralistic society is to equip students for civic engagement in a diverse and uncertain world that demands of them agility and openness, this increasingly strident partisan movement seeks to manufacture the illusion of stability at the cost of truth, intellect, and inclusion--mainly by constraining what students are exposed to and how they are asked to think or not think about it. Swensson compellingly articulates this ideological divide, decodes the partisan rhetoric, and shows how profound the stakes of this struggle are for the future of our democracy.--Diane Shane Fruchtman, PhD, associate professor of religion, Rutgers University Jeff Swensson shares the purpose of public education that reveals the intention to create a level playing field for all students in this country who will be leaders and innovative contributors in our society. Dr. Swensson exposes the groups who are trying to undermine public education using falsehoods and myths. This book exposes the truth behind the veil of "parental rights" and discusses how this smokescreen creates a scenario in which adults win and students lose. Defending Public Education engages the reader with the dangers inherent in the attack on our public schools and explains why the defense of public education is critical to the open futures and intellectual autonomy that all students deserve.--Anne Duff, Ft. Wayne Community Schools Board of Trustees, member; Indiana Coalition for Public Education, secretary Public education has never faced so many threats and attacks. Under the guise of "parental rights" and "reform," the enemies of public education seek to defund, demoralize, and destroy our most important public institution. Senior scholar and former public school administrator Dr. Jeff Swensson explains the full scope of these assaults and provides an insightful path forward. If you seek to fully understand what is at stake in the battle for quality, inclusive public education, Defending Public Education is a must-read.--Daphne Elliot, Brookside Middle School teacher International Baccalaureate Program, Sarasota, Florida
