American Public Education and the Responsibility of Its Citizens: Supporting Democracy in the Age of Accountability by Sarah M. Stitzlein (review)

In his 1916 preface to Democracy and Education, John Dewey comments that the main goal of his book was “to detect and state the ideas implied in a democratic society and to apply these ideas to the problems and enterprise of education. The discussion includes an indication of the constructive aims and methods of public education as seen from this point of view.”¹ More than 100 years later, Sarah M. Stitzlein confirms Dewey’s ideas and expands his scholarship to defend the political legitimacy of public education in the United States. She argues that public schools should enable children to become good citizens who engage in the pursuit of individual happiness, while fighting for social justice. Stitzlein contends that effective public education builds certain desirable characteristics for citizens in a democracy, including “trust, exchange, respect for equal justice under law, appreciation for civil discourse, free and open inquiry, knowledge of rights, and recognition of the tension between freedom and order.”² Stitzlein argues that public schooling enables children to respect and communicate with different publics or populations and to recognize that an effective democracy requires a delicate balance between the fulfillment of private and societal needs. Because public education serves this democratic purpose (public good), the author claims that members of increasingly diverse publics are responsible for collaborating with teachers, administrators, and other stakeholders to ensure that public education sustains an ever-evolving democracy. Stitzlein supports this argument in nine very cogent chapters.

In chapter 1, Stitzlein suggests that in an age of neoliberalism, privatization, and corporate interests in public education systems, citizens must remember that they are the publics that constitute public education. The author notes, “The public is, at base, the demos of democracy, the people who constitute it and who engage in ruling (kratos) it. The state or government provides the structure through which the public implements its will, and it is guided in its organization and practice by a constitution.”³ Although she refers to “the public” in the previous statement, citing Kathleen Knight Abowitz, Stitzlein frequently uses “publics” to describe groups of people who have shared interests and problems. The author suggests that publics are not synonymous with community. As opposed to the geographical boundaries and often permanent natures of communities, publics are ubiquitous and ephemeral subsets of people from communities.

In chapter 2, Stitzlein draws a strong connection between democracy, publics, public schools, and accountability. The author suggests that accountability traditionally refers to an institution’s ability to meet the expectations of a public. In the past, public education accountability referred to a school system’s ability to meet the expectations of a local community and its publics who actively participate in the accountability process. The author argues that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and other federal and state government initiatives changed the definition of accountability to compliance to state and federal governmental standards. As such, accountability no longer takes the voices of local communities and their diverse publics into account. Public school teachers and administrators comply with government-mandated criteria. Citizens (publics) become consumers who shop for the best public education services for their children.

In chapter 3, Stitzlein defines public schools and describes school choice trends. The author claims that public schools ideally should meet five criteria. First, they are open to all citizens and publics. Second, they serve these publics. Third, they are responsive to these publics. Fourth, they are creators of publicness.⁴ Finally, public schools “sustain democracy by developing skills and dispositions within children for participating in it.”⁵ Public schools provide universal education to local communities. Public schools serve the educational and sociopolitical needs of and collaborate with local communities. Equally important, public schools sustain democracy (“publicness”) through the creation of skills and dispositions that enable children to work across cultural...