Is free public education a right?
Chairman Gordon Haist introduced Hank Noble, retired educator, former Hilton Head Elementary School principal, education consultant.
Hank first challenged the audience to “play with” AI, saying he finds it not only useful but fascinating. As one example, AI produced a Power Point presentation from Hank’s summary of the issues he would raise. As another, Google responded quickly to Hank’s request for a brief history of public education in the United States. “AI can quickly provide menus and recipes based on the contents of your pantry,” he said.
The brief history of public education here as offered by AI:
· In the 1600s public education was created to enable children to read the Bible.
· In the 1700s public education was enhanced to try to develop knowledgeable voters.
· In the 1800s, under the influence of Horace Mann, public education evolved as a legitimate public expense.
· By 1918, every state had enacted laws mandating school for every child.
· In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that separation of school for blacks and whites must end. (It did not really end until 1971 in South Carolina.)
· In 1965 Congress passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act requiring every state to develop standards for public schools.
· Later, federal law required states to provide educational opportunities for children with learning difficulties.
Next came this question: Is free public education a right for every child? And this question: Should educational standards and requirements be the same all over the country?
From the audience came several comments: Equal education for every child is not possible for many reasons, starting with the fact that children’s abilities differ widely. In addition, public money to pay for public education is ample in some communities and insufficient in others. Further, the culture of every community influences the content and quality of the teaching and learning in its schools.
Hank then threw out the issue of who should determine what should be taught.
One audience member pointed out that local boards of education properly have the most impact on subject matter. Another told of an incident in which school board candidates were offered campaign donations from members of the public in exchange for allowing them to dictate content of classes. The organization Moms for Liberty has tried to manage the availability of certain books in school libraries, intending to eliminate many titles. (Beaufort County Board of Education organized a system of having the proposed banned books read in assigned locations in the libraries based on the appropriateness of the content.)
One audience member recommended that teachers have a substantial “say so” in determining emphasis of various subjects, capable of recognizing, for example, the problem of a lack of math skills, also recognizing the increasing problems in society of misinformation and disinformation. Beaufort and Jasper Counties’ Academy for Career Excellence, for example, seeing tourism as a major employer in the region, developed a substantial program for teaching hospitality skills.
Hank reminded the audience of the fact that local religious groups have frequently tried, and sometimes succeeded in taking charge of the content taught in public schools. Oklahomans lobbied for putting a Bible in every classroom, some calling for Trump Bibles. Professional educators brought that movement to a halt. In Muncie, N.Y., Ultra Orthodox Jews took over the public schools for a while. It is the task of state and federal boards of education to control such biases and to set standards and judge the quality of schools, also to manage the large Pell Grants program, Hank said.
Gordon brought up the issue of the importance of academic freedom in higher education, then acknowledged the problem of the lack of responsibility on the part of some professors. Teaching how to steal in an ethics course, for example, would be grounds for dismissal. “Professors have no right to turn students away from ethical standards,” he said.
A member of the audience brought up the subject of two Clemson professors who were fired for their comments on the shooting death of Charlie Kirk. Another audience member responded that their firing was legal but wrong.
The last subject raised was the cost of higher education, unmanageable for many families. Grants and loans have allowed the costs to rise significantly, and yet, the average student graduating from college is $30,000 in debt. Ivy League graduates are likely to have less debt upon graduation because of endowments. Still, medical school graduates sometimes start their practices with enormous debts – as much as $250,000, for example. Many parents do not save money over the years for their children’s college expenses.
Hank asked a last question: Where is the accountability for the quality of public education – with students, teachers, boards of education, elected officials? Answer via consensus: all of the above.