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Under our

ernment-run schools' inability to give equal

nation more diverse. These conflicts are not

weight to all peoples' rights and values. In a

only inescapable under our monolithic sys-

monolithic

few cases, however, these might not be as

tem of official schools, they are actually

system, different

clear, such as when the incident is a small

caused by it. Different cultural, ethnic, and

cultural, ethnic,

battle in a larger fight or focuses on only one

religious groups have no choice but to enter

person's effort to change the schools. For

the political melee if they want to see their

and religious

instance, one story reviews a debate in

values taught and desires met by the public

groups have no

Arizona over Black History Month in which

schools.

several people asserted that the state's

So is American education doomed to eter-

choice but to

schools were doing an inadequate job of

nal acrimony? Thankfully, it doesn't have to

enter the political

teaching African-American history. This did

be. If public education were driven by free

melee if they want

not involve a court case or specific legislation,

parental choice, it could escape the Balkan-

but nonetheless showed that people were

izing battles that plague our current system,

to see their values

unhappy with the schools for which they had

because individual parents could choose

taught by the

to pay but could only change through poli-

schools that comport with their values, and

public schools.

tics. A Nevada man's drive to put an initiative

there would be no need to fight over public

on the state ballot changing how evolution is

schools for which all must pay, but only the

addressed in Nevada schools is similar. While

most politically powerful can control. And

it might be dismissed as just one man's cru-

there is an upside to choice even beyond

sade, polls regularly show that large percent-

unity and social cohesion. Current research

ages of Americans have qualms about evolu-

shows that private schools do a significantly

tion. Moreover, even if just one person must

better job of teaching kids to become good,

enter a political fight to get satisfaction from

active, knowledgeable, and tolerant citizens

the schools, it is still a case of conflict forced

than do the public schools.

by public schooling. Finally, a few stories

revolve around officials in public schools

Appendix:

deeming such things as specific films or web-

A Word on Organization

sites inappropriate for children. Conflict is

inherent in these cases because even when the

and Story Selection

officials are reflecting the opinion of the vast

majority of district residents, no government

The following section is organized first by

authority may constitutionally deem some

state, and within states by the eight conflict

forms of expression "appropriate" and others

types. The stories were collected between July

"inappropriate."

15, 2005, and July 15, 2006. Where years are

One final note: The author would like to

not explicitly given in synopses, the months

thank Jessie Creel for assistance in collecting

mentioned fall within that date range.

and collating these data.

Stories were identified using readily available

news sources. Finally, several conflicts could

Alabama

fall under multiple categories, such as dis-

putes between homosexual students and stu-

Intelligent Design

· Montgomery--In November, the Alabama

dents expressing religiously driven opposi-

tion to homosexuality, which could go under

Board of Education voted unanimously to

"homosexuality," "freedom of expression," or

continue use of a disclaimer in biology

"religion." These incidents have been placed

textbooks stating that "evolution is a con-

under the categories most central to the con-

troversial theory." This despite having

flict, though they could have been listed

dropped the same wording on the state's

under any applicable heading.

science guidelines last year and strong

For the majority of the stories the con-

consensus among scientists that learning

flicts are obvious, as are their roots in gov-

Darwin's theory of evolution is crucial to

16