Public Education in the United States

1. Public Education in the United States Chapters 9 and 10

2. Chapter 9Pathologies of Pluralism:Nativism and Racism

3. Part IFlood Tide of Immigration • The seed of disjunctivitis in education • Though the US and Western European education systems have been engrained with unjust practices, the systems have expressed inequality in starkly contrasting ways. • The U.S. education system has followed trends in US culture and politics when considering issues of ethnic discrimination and racism

4. Flood Tide of Immigration – Cont’d. • The US of the late 19th and early 20th centuries saw extraordinary immigration of central, eastern, and southern Europeans, as well as eastern Asians in the western US. • Prior to this immigration boom, most white Americans were of western European descent • In response to the influx of immigrants, there was a dominant reaction of culture and political structure of nativism. • Ultimately, the nativist attitudes were iterations of racism and classism. • The education system followed closely behind the dominant culture of nativism. The text refers to this as the “Anglo Conformity” as dominant culture (Anglo) forced others to simulate and be a part of the Anglo culture.

5. Part IINativistic Drives to Assimilate European Immigrants • The Push Toward Anglo Conformity In response to the influx of immigrants, there was a dominant reaction of culture and political structure of nativism. Ultimately, the nativist attitudes were iterations of racism and classism. The education system followed closely behind the dominant culture of nativism. The text refers to this as the “Anglo Conformity” or the dominant culture (Anglo) forcing others to simulate submit to the Anglo culture. • Victory of Restrictive Legislation • Legislation by the Congress to limit and cap immigration were successful between the 1880s and 1920s. These policies, seemingly based on fear and racism, limited many different races and ethnicities admission to the country. Especially maltreated were Irish Catholics • The “Americanization” Movement • Fears of pluralization in the culture and in education led to the attempt to Americanize the populace. The result in schools was a stronger focus on English, American History, and civics. Americanization was strongly pursued by both radicals and moderates.

6. Nativistic Drives to Assimilate European Immigrants – Cont’d. • The Role of Public Education in Assimilation The public schools saw themselves during these tumultuous decades as an assimilator. Francesco Cordasco is paraphrased in the text as stating the schools were a “forced assimilator” of the wide array of races and ethnicities. • Mary Antin on the Values of Assimilation • Antin was a first generation Russian-American. Her father, and other immigrants like him, supported assimilation as the best chance of the children to get ahead in America. Antin was an ardent supporter of the schools role in Americanization and Anglo-conformity. • John Dewey and Jan Addams on the Values of Cultural Pluralism • Several voices came forward to support pluralism and multicultural education in the schools. Dewey and Addams campaigned that the schools often did more harm than good by segregating the lives and values of the new American cultures from the dominant culture. Addams saw that schools could be a tool for immense good in multiculturalism and divers education. • The Popularity of Americanization Legislation • Both state and federal legislative bodies began to take up the cause of Americanization in the 1910s and ‘20s. Laws requiring “Americanization” of students, schools, or districts of immigrant children were targeted. A few key laws were struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court (Meyer v. Nebraska, Pierce v. Society of Sisters) • Decisive Roles of Public Schools

7. Part IIIResponses of European Immigrants to Public Education • Immigrant Commitment to Public Schooling • Since the schools were one of the best ways to achieve advancement, large groups of immigrant Americans bought into the Americanization in schools. In fact, attendance of white immigrant American children was better than older-American children's’ attendance. Many early-generation American immigrants became school teachers, furthering the Americanization of immigrant populations’ education • Factors Affecting Immigrant Achievement in School • Several factors affected achievement in schools. However, through Cohen’s study, and then Olneck and Lazerson’s study, it was found that the cultural value placed on education and advancement through education had more bearing than other factors such as father’s employment, class, or length of residence in the U.S.

8. Responses of European Immigrants to Public Education – Cont’d. • Immigrant Adaptability and Upward Social Mobility • Ethnic and Religious Disparities • Additional to differences in achievement based on cultural values toward education, whether students were likely to attend public schools, and participate fully in them (as opposed to a parochial school, which many Catholic children attended) • The Classlessness of Opportunity • While high and strong barriers were in between immigrant Americans and social mobility, studies by Thernstrom found that opportunity was available to all groups, and was more accessible to groups who were allowed to participate fully in public schools.

9. Part IVRacist Differentiation Imposed Upon Non-European Minorities • Pervasive Discrimination Against Mexican-Americans • Despite the Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo (1848) guaranteeing rights of citizenship to those Mexican Americans who stayed in the Annexed Southwest Territories, Mexican-Americans found that the U.S. was not ready nor willing to have equal educational or economic opportunities for its newest citizens. • Barriers to Assimilation • Due to well connected and established Spanish-speaking communities, which did not value education, but rather, like large groups of Italian immigrants, saw it as an institution to be leery of, and reserved for the elite.

10. Racist Differentiation Imposed Upon Non-European Minorities – Cont’d • Legal Segregation of Blacks • Jim Crow Athwart Assimilation • All 17 southern states adopted Jim Crow as the basis for segregation in public places, including schools. The Supreme Court furthered this discrimination by declaring the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional. • Separate and Unequal Schooling • The text defines three Rs of Jim Crow South as: • Reconstruction (1860s -1870s) Schools were integrated and equal • Redemption (1870s – 1890s) Schools were separate but equal • Repression (1890s – 1920s) Schools were separate and unequal

11. Racist Differentiation Imposed Upon Non-European Minorities – Cont’d • Segregated Assimilation for American Indians • Segregation in Social Life • By 1890, most Native Americans live in reservations, or effective prisons of the U.S. government. The Dawes Act aimed to end reservations in exchange for forced farming. • This discouraging treatment brought the sympathies of religious organizations which tried to start religious schools, but no public schools were afforded for the Native Americans until the 1920s. • Attempted Assimilation by Segregated Schools

12. Summary of Chapter 9 • Immigrants swell US population • Racism, nativism, and fear become major parts of the educational and political goals of the country • Americanization and Anglo-Conformity are test put to immigrants in schools • Immigrants thrive and integrate well (with some major barriers and exceptions) in schools and society. • Later-era immigrants (Mexican Americans, Native Americans, and African Americans) are terribly deprived of rights as citizens.

13. Chapter 10 The Search for Freedom

14. Part IPrivate Freedoms • Rights of Parents vs. Authority of the State • Meyer v. Nebraska (1923) • Supreme Court decided that a Nebraska act, outlawing teaching of any subject in a language other than English. The law was established in an attempt to keep private schools from operating solely for the purpose of educating children of other tongues. • Pierce v. Society of Sister (1925) • Supreme court ruled that while a state (Oregon) could require children to attend school (compulsory attendance) it could not require the children to go to a public, non-religious school. The law Oregon had established was to prevent private Catholic schools from operating. • Variations on Meyer and Pierce • Though the Supreme Court made great strides to protect the educational choices of white parents in these cases, it did just as much damage to black and Asian parents during the same time period. Plessy v. Ferguson being one of the most shameful decisions of the ‘20s.

15. Private Freedoms – Cont’d. • Freedom of Religious Belief vs. Public Profession of Loyalty • Minnersville v. Gobitis (1940) • Gobitis, a Jehovah’s Witness, sued the Minnersville BOE because the child was required to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, and salute of the U.S. flag. The Supreme Court ruled that it was constitutional to require students to do so. • West Va. v. Barnett (1943) • Barnett reversed the Gobitis decision, saying that a school could not require anyone to a specific credo.

16. Private Freedoms – Cont’d. • Religious Freedom vs. Compulsory attendance • Wisconsin v. Yoder • The Supreme Court sided with the state of Wisconsin when sued by the Yoder family over compulsory attendance through the age of 16, or 14 under religious exemptions. The Amish Yoders challenged that the state could not require children to attend school beyond 8th grade because the religious beliefs of the Amish community did not require it. • Justice Douglas on Children’s Rights • Justice Douglas wrote that children’s rights were to supersede those of parents in matters of compulsory attendance, when the outcome would advance the child’s development.

17. Private Freedoms – Cont’d. • Widening Debate over Compulsory Education • While some researchers maintain that compulsory education is a great part of a system which closes the gap of equal opportunity in the educational system, recently, opponents of compulsory attendance rules have become more vocal and increased in size. The most compelling arguments center on the Constitution’s lack of educational compulsion.

18. Private Freedoms – Cont’d. • Private Freedoms vs. Public Education • Private Sovereignty Superior to Public Sovereignty • John Coons argues that the Private Sovereignty (the family) can better educate a child than the public sovereignty (the school, government, etc.) • Public Schools Unconstitutional? • One legal scholar, Stephen Aarons has taken the Pierce decision several steps further, arguing that the First Amendment forbids public education on the principal that it dictates what children must understand and value.

19. Part IIPublic Freedom: Separation of Church and State • Public Funds for Religious Schools? • The constitutionality of funding of religious schools is another legal question that is widely debated in the U.S. • Direct Aid • The Catholic Church (and others) has argued that parents should not have to pay taxes to support public schools while also having to pay tuition to parochial schools, especially when the state does not provide “adequate” opportunities to all students. • Child Benefit: The Cochran Case • The Cochran case was a Supreme Court decision to allow textbooks, transportation, healthcare, and other support services to privately schooled children using public funds. • Indirect Aid: Everson v. BOE • In Everson, the Supreme Court decided that states could prohibit indirect aid (as in Cochran) to parochial schools, but was not required to do so. • No Aid: The Public School Position • Public school advocates obviously raised objections over the arguments of the degrees to which the state should support private schools, taking the position that no aid should be granted to them.

20. Public Freedom: Separation of Church and State – Cont’d • Continuing Campaign for Public Funds • At the Federal Level • Several bills, including the G.I. Bill made it possible for federal education funds to be allocated to private, religious educational institutions. Also the National Science Foundation began to make grants to private, religious educational institutions in the ‘60s. • At the State Level • Public funds continued to go from the state budget to private, religious schools. The Supreme Court upheld a New York State law which required school boards to provide free textbooks to all children, despite their school’s affiliation with the state. • Constitutional Tests • Pennsylvania, then Connecticut and Rhode Island tried to follow NY’s lead and pay salaries of private school staff with state funds. The Supreme Court found that to be unconstitutional.

21. Public Freedom: Separation of Church and State – Cont’d • Religious Instruction in the Public Schools • Released Time • The Supreme Court has ruled that as long as religious groups promote their own religious instruction in school and do not use public funds, religious education, or release time is constitutional. • Bible Reading • Non-sectarian reading of the Bible has been allowed in many states, however, Catholics and Jews have objected saying that the KJV of the Bible is inherently sectarian. The text offers no resolution to this issue. • Non-Sectarian Prayers • The Supreme Court has ruled that prayer led by school staff is a religious activity and therefore violates the establishment clause of the first amendment.

22. Part IIIPublic Freedom: Teaching and Learning • Meiklejohn on Education and the First Amendment • Alexander Meiklejohn argued that teachers must be protected under the First Amendment in order to educate students in a free academic environment. Essentially, arguing for the public freedom of teachers to do and say what the believed without fear of recrimination in order to expose students to diverse views. • Loyalty Oaths • During the ‘50s teachers were required to take an oath of loyalty. This was an attempt to weed out Communists from the schools. These were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. • Communist Party Membership • Meiklejohn versus Hook • Hook believed membership in the Communist Party precluded ability to teach, because “there are no innocent members in the Communist Party.” Meiklejohn argued that teaching was based on capacity, not membership, and could not be decided by any membership.. • Position of Professional Associations • The NEA decided in ‘49 that Communists could not be members of the NEA. The AFT and AAUP decided after much deliberation that competence meant more to teaching than party affiliation and did not disallow communists. • Feinberg Law Upheld—and Then Reversed • Law in New York State disallowing any “subversive” from holding a teaching position was overturned by a district court, appeals court, and the was upheld by the US Supreme Court in 1952.

23. Public Freedom: Teaching and Learning – Cont’d. • Freedom of Teachers to Teach • Mostly, courts have ruled that teachers have the same political and speech freedoms as other citizens. However, this is always under scrutiny. • Children’s Right to Due Process • Goss v. Lopez • Children cannot be expelled or lose any other liberty or property rights without due process (hearings, oral and written notices, etc.) • The Right to Privacy • NJ v. TLO is landmark case for privacy. Students have an expectation of privacy for both their belongings and their persons. Searches must be justified, and the more intrusive the search, the more just cause there must be for the search. • Freedom of Students to Learn/ Tinker v. Des Moines • Tinker was the landmark free speech case for education. Students wearing armbands, or any peaceful, solemn, and non-distractive form of speech is protected. Students do not shed their speech rights when the enter the school.

24. Chapter 10 Summary • Courts have a well established set of rulings on educational issues. • Parents, religious beliefs, compulsory education, teachers rights, and students rights have fairly clear rights under Supreme Court rulings. • Public v. private/religious money and teaching are fuzzy, but decided by Supreme Court. • Is compulsory school even Constitutional?