Education and society: a complex interaction

Social historians have reminded us that schools both reflect and influence society. They are established to serve the needs that society has identified. Society decides who is to attend, for how long, and for what kinds of experiences.

The economic resources of society affect the amount of money available the amount of money available for education, and political processes influence the proportion of the total resources assigned to education. In a very important sense, educational institutions reflect the value society places upon children, the aspirations it has or them, and the attitudes, skills, and competencies it expects them to acquire for their own welfare and that of the society itself.

It follows naturally from this reciprocal relationship that educational policy and practice will be the foci of public discussion, and not infrequently these debates reflect value differences and power struggles that are not themselves primarily educational in nature.

Our colleges and universities were the subjects of intense criticism in the late 1960's, largely because of student involvement in the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements. More recently the elementary and secondary schools have been the source of substantial discontent with the academic performance of students.

Public debate

The history of American education makes clear that there is nothing new about intense public debate and agitation about the role of education and the conduct of schools. The struggle to legitimize the use of tax revenues for the support of public schools was long and intense. For a considerable period, public tax support was regarded as legitimate only for schools for the children of the poor. Free public education for all was slow in coming and highly controversial throughout much of our history. Although local communities differed widely in the amount and the quality of education provided, efforts to establish State agencies of education to set and enforce standards were vigorously resisted. Religious influence in the public schools was a heated issue over many decades; indeed, the extent to which it persists is debated even now. To this highly abbreviated list of broad issues of public policy that occupied public attention during our Nation's history can be added such subjects as the teaching of evolution, the censorship of library books, techniques of discipline, prayers, the oath of allegiance, and the selection of textbooks.

This close interrelationship between school and society would be enough to account for considerable public discussion in any society. The frequency and intensity of our historical and contemporary debates require a special explanation. It lies, in part at least, in an early and basic commitment to decentralize the governance of our educational institutions. We have been determined to avoid Federal management and control of education and, as a closely related consequence, recognized the importance of diversity in the governance of our educational institutions.

Decentralization of governance

From the beginnings of education in America, there has been a strong emphasis on local responsibility for schools. In colonial New England, the villages were assigned the task of providing schools. This precedent provided the basis for the local school district, which remains the key instrument of governance of public school education to this day. In 1900, there were 150,000 school districts, and although the number has been reduced for reasons of economy, efficiency, and educational policy, there remained more than 15,000 in 1977. The significance of these figures lies in the fact that the people can elect their fellow citizens to the boards of these districts. The boards determine the curriculum, the physical resources, the level of funding, and, in general, do whatever they decide is necessary and reasonable for the education of their children. While the various States may set minimal standards on a variety of issues, there is a great deal of latitude for the district itself above these minimal requirements.

A similar emphasis on decentralization is apparent with respect to our colleges and universities. There is no Federal university. The prevailing mode of governance of our colleges and universities, both private and public, is that of the board of trustees, consisting of lay people in whom the authority of the institution reposes. While he process of appointment or election varies, the significant fact is that these boards are relatively autonomous. As a consequence, higher education policy in the country reflects the decisions, interests, and aspirations of the boards of over 2,800 separate institutions.

There has been a corresponding vigorous avoidance of strong Federal control. The Constitution of the United States does not mention education. By inference it assigned educational responsibility to States and local governments and to individual citizens. The United States has no ministry of education as is common in other countries. The role of the Federal education agency, the Office (now the Department) of Education, has been limited to educational research, educational services to local and State agencies, and the administration of Federal educational grants. These, in turn, have been restricted to the support of particular programs that are deemed to serve the national interest, such as vocational, adult, and special education. In no significant sense has the agency the basic impact on educational policy that characterizes ministries of education. This picture of limited Federal impact is not altered by the establishment of the new Department of Education, although much of the opposition to the new department reflected the historical fear of increased Federal influence. The new department reflects a reorganization and consolidation of the educational activities of the Federal government but no significant increase in responsibility.

Nor does the Federal government dominate the financial support of education. For each year since 1970, the Nation has spent an average of 7 percent of the gross national product for education at all levels and in all types of institutions. In 1979, of the estimated total expenditures of $151.5 billion, 10 percent came from the Federal government; State and local governments provided 64 percent. Most of the remaining 25 percent came from private sources.

While there was a gradual recognition that education was a proper concern of local and State government, there has always been an affirmation of the right of individuals to maintain and utilize nonpublic schools, whether parochial or independent. Although the impact of nonpublic institutions has declined over the years, both in respect number of institutions and enrollment, in 1977 there were more than 17,000 elementary and seconary nonpublic schools, about 20 percent as many as there were public schools. In higher education, there were 1,554 private institutions, compared with 1,231 public ones. In terms of enrollment, in 1977 approximately 10 percent of the elementary and secondary school pupils were in private institutions, as were about 25 percent of all college and university students.

As a consequence of the emphasis on local control, our educational apparatus can be called a system only in the most generous sense. There are substantial differences in values and aspirations across the 50 States. The States differ in the amount of education required by law and in the standards for graduation from high school. They differ in the amount of education that is publicly provided beyond high school. State control is stronger in some States than in others. An enormous variety of educational institutions has developed: large research universities, both public and private liberal arts colleges; vocational schools; schools for children and adults with special handicaps; private college preparatory schools; and schools and colleges that are operated as profitmaking businesses.

When a society is homogeneous with respect to its values and aspirations, the resultant educational apparatus can be comparatively uniform even in the absence of strong centralized control. When, however, as is true of our society, there are substantial cultural differences and strong divergences of value and aspiration, together with well-established means for local participation, it is inevitable that the schools have become the locus for the struggles between groups with different goals and different values.

Our public debates, then, are noisy, widespread, and continuous because of the historic emphases on decentralized control and the conditions of our society, notably the progressive loss of commonly held values and the loss of cohesiveness generally.

Our educational

accomplishments

Out of this commitment to decentralized control has emerged an educational system of great diversity, responsiveness, and accomplishment. In 1900 the proportion of illiterates in the United States, defined by the U.S. census as the inability to read and write in any language, was 10 percent. As recently as 1930, approximately four percent of the population was illiterate. In 1969, only one percent of the population over the age of 14 was illiterate. There is little difference between males and females with respect to literacy, and the difference between Blacks and Whites is negligible for those 14 to 24 years of age. The significant differences between Blacks and Whites are in the age group 65 years and older.

In 1890 less than seven percent of children between the ages of 14 and 17 were enrolled in school. Not until 1920 was a third of this age group in school. By 1930, the figure had reached one-half, and by 1940, three-fourths were in school. In 1978, 98 percent of the children from age five to 15 were enrolled in school. The figure drops to 89 percent for young people age 16 to 17. American society has decided that children should be in school, and that is precisely where they are.

By 1978, for those in the population 25 years and older, the median number of school years completed was 12.4 years. Of those over 25, 36 percent had completed high school and almost 30 percent had had one or more years of college. Thus, more than two-thirds of the population 25 years or older have four years of high school or more.

An equally impressive picture emerges with respect to higher education. In 1840, there were only 16,233 students enrolled in 173 colleges and universities. In 1977, there were more than 11 million enrolled in a total of 2,826 colleges and universities. From 1840 to 1970, while the population increased 12 times, higher education enrollments increased 529 times. The proportion of the college-aged group that is enrolled in higher education is higher in the United States than anywhere else in the world. In 1965, the figure was 41 percent here, Canada was next with 24 percent, and France was third with 17 percent. For other western European countries, the proportion ranged from 10 to 15 percent. The U.S. proportion is four times that of the U.S.S.R.

After an indefensibly slow start, the improvement of educational opportunity for minorities has been marked in the last decade. In 1977, Blacks and Whites and males and females did not differ significantly in the proportion of each group, aged 16 to 21, who were in school or college. With respect to higher education specifically, the proportion of the Black population in institutions of higher education is approximately the same as the proportion for Whites.

While there remains, for society as a whole, a relationship between income and college attendance, the impact of economic factors is diminishing as a result of increased financial aid. In 1979, Federal expenditures for low-income youth in college were three times greater per person than for the average of the college-aged group as a whole.

One can properly take seriously current criticisms of the performance of our educational system and, nonetheless, recognize these achievements as significant. Our Nation has a literate population, a high average level of educational attainment, and a large proportion of its population with advanced education. There has been an appreciable increase in the availability of education at all levels, regardless of social class or ethnic origins. These educational attainments reflect as well the remarkable responsiveness of our educational apparatus to the aspirations of the people for equal opportunity, an educated citizenry, and people with advanced training to perform the roles a complex society requires.

The argument has been that America's educational achievements have been significant. Contemporary disputes about educational purposes and the adequacy of our institutions are as noisy as they are because of our historic wariness of centralized control, our commitment to extensive participation in the development of educational policy, and our dedication to diversity. The effects of these basic tendencies have been exacerbated over the past several decades by the increased emphasis on individualism, the loss of shared values and purposes, and the fragmentation of our society. These, in turn, have decreased the effectiveness of our country in its quest to create the good society. This analysis suggests that our most important educational task today is the development of civic virtues, the traits of the citizen that are essential if a democracy is to function effectively for all. And this, of course, constitutes a reinstatement of the concern that much occupied the founders of this country.

COPYRIGHT 1984 U.S. Government Printing Office
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group