Introduction

What is a "public" school? That question looms large over the national debate about school reform. In light of the Supreme Court's Zelman v. Simmons-Harris decision, the No Child Left Behind Act's provisions mandating creation of public choice options for children in low-performing schools, and the proliferation of charter schooling and tuition tax credit plans, it is time for policymakers to rethink what is public and private in education.

Historically, defenders of the public purpose in education have off-handedly labeled their opponents or proposed reforms as "anti-public education." While this tactic has long been used as a blanket defense for the status quo, it is becoming less relevant to teaching or learning and serves primarily to stifle practical discussion about how to balance the community, familial, and national interests in improving schooling for all our children. Amidst widespread support for public school choice plans, explosive growth in charter schooling, and the Supreme Court's ruling that voucher programs pass constitutional muster, there is growing recognition that it may be possible to serve public purposes and cultivate civic virtues in places other than conventional state-run schools.¹ Policymakers of various ideological stripes are seeking ways to use this insight to enhance education for all of America's children. As we seek to tackle today's educational challenges, we need to think carefully about how to provide schooling that is consistent with our shared heritage of liberty and community.² This paper offers a framework for negotiating this thorny conversation as we consider the various ways we provide education, whether through conventional district-run schools, charter schooling, school vouchers, tuition tax credits, for-profit operators, public-school choice, home schooling, or anything else. The hard-and-fast lines we have drawn between public and private are much more blurry and less useful than we pretend.