Perhaps the most pernicious myth about American public education is that it is the “foundation of our democracy,” the great unifying force that has taken millions of diverse peoples and shaped them into a cohesive, happy whole.

It’s a fantasy. The ugly truth is that our one-size-fits-all public school system, for which everyone must pay but only the most politically powerful can control, has been forcing American communities into ruinous social conflict for almost two centuries. The latest casualty is Miami, where efforts to ban school library books that portray post-communist revolution Cuba in a flattering light have set the community ablaze. From the Miami Herald:

The emotional and political storm surrounding the debate became impossible to ignore in a community so deeply steeped in Cuban culture. It bared the exile community’s considerable political heft as well as persistent suspicion that other groups remain ignorant of – or even hostile to – the deep sensitivity toward Cuba’s image and struggles….

Board member Robert Ingram voted for the ban, but only to invite the ACLU’s lawsuit so the issue could be resolved by the courts, he said. In an impassioned speech, he said threats from the exile community left him thinking board members “might find a bomb under their automobiles” if they voted to keep the book.

“There’s a passion of hate,” Ingram said. “I can’t vote my conscience without feeling threatened – that should never happen in this community any more.”

Tragically, all across the country conflicts like Miami’s occur constantly. Battles over Intelligent Design, school budgets, dress codes, student speech rights, race, and sex education all are symptoms of the same problem: Monolithic systems of public education will only reflect the values of those people with enough political strength to impose their will. This results in either nonstop political warfare or subjugation of the politically weak, neither of which is the foundation of any kind of desirable society. Only freedom, which in education means school choice, can form such a foundation.