No. 587
January 23, 2007
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Why We Fight
How Public Schools Cause Social Conflict
by Neal McCluskey
Executive Summary
contention, conflict was constant in American
It is all too often assumed that public educa-
public education last year.
tion as we typically think of it today--schooling
Such conflict, however, is not peculiar to the
provided and controlled by government--consti-
last school year, nor is it a recent phenomenon.
tutes the "foundation of American democracy."
Throughout American history, public schooling
Such schooling, it is argued, has taken people of
has produced political disputes, animosity, and
immensely varied ethnic, religious, and racial
sometimes even bloodshed between diverse peo-
backgrounds and molded them into Americans
ple. Such clashes are inevitable in government-run
who are both unified and free. Public schooling,
schooling because all Americans are required to
it is assumed, has been the gentle flame beneath
support the public schools, but only those with
the great American melting pot.
the most political power control them. Political--
Unfortunately, the reality is very different from
and sometimes even physical--conflict has thus
those idealized assumptions. Indeed, rather than
been an inescapable public schooling reality.
bringing people together, public schooling often
To end the fighting caused by state-run school-
forces people of disparate backgrounds and beliefs
ing, we should transform our system from one in
into political combat. This paper tracks almost
which government establishes and controls
150 such incidents in the 200506 school year
schools, to one in which individual parents are
alone. Whether over the teaching of evolution, the
empowered to select schools that share their moral
content of library books, religious expression in
values and educational goals for their children.
the schools, or several other common points of
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Neal McCluskey is a policy analyst at the Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom and author of the forth-
coming book Feds in the Classroom: How Big Government Corrupts, Cripples, and Compromises
American Education (Rowman and Littlefield).