Why America still needs public schools

Although the White House battle with elite universities like Colombia and Harvard has recently dominated the headlines, the dispute oversees a broader and more far-reaching attack on K-12 public education through the Trump administration and many states.

The Trump administration has abolished the education department, efforts to protect the civil rights of students, and billions of public education for the fiscal year 2026. Meanwhile, the administration is turning billions of taxpayers’ funds in K-12 private schools. The move is based on efforts like the Conservative states to address public education.

But the results of the withdrawal of public education can be serious for the United States in our 2024 book, “Hao Government Bullet America”, we have been the first of the 19th century to provide millions of veterans to the Global -II, from Hurris Mann’s “Joint School Movement” to the 20th, from the 20th to the 20th century.

We have found that public education has been essential not only to create an educated manpower but also to develop the fundamental values ​​of the United States independence, equality, justice and shared well.

Good in public

Opponents of public education often call public schools as “public schools”, it seems that public education is to be linked to the “big government”.

But, as we have already discovered, the government has always been an important partner with the private market system in achieving the country’s basic political values. Public education has been an important part of this partnership.

Education is what economists call the people good, which means that it benefits not only the students but also the country.

Mann, an educational reformist often named the father of the American public school system, argued that universal, public financial supporters, irrelevant public schools would help maintain US political institutions, increase the economy and prevent social disorders.

In the research of Mann’s joint schools and other educational history for our book, two lessons stood before us.

One is that in the last 150 years, American investment in public education has created an educated manpower that has given innovation and unprecedented prosperity.

For example, as the documents of our book, in the late 18th century and early 19th century, the states increased public education to include high school to meet the growing demand of more educated citizens as a result of the industrial revolution. And the GI Bill made it possible for former soldiers to receive a college degree or train for professionals, help young families and buy homes, fields or businesses, and encouraged them to become a more busy citizen, “in the middle of the twentieth century, the American democracy.”

Secondly, the same important lesson is that the Democratic and Republican principles, which have pursued the vision of a joint school, have made many Americans’ assumptions about the education of public schools. Man’s target was a “good Republican citizen”. It is a citizen educated in “good citizenship, democratic participation and social welfare”.

Man believed that there was nothing other than “proper training of the emerging generation”, which was termed as the “highest ground duty” of the country.

Attacking public education

Today, the vision of Man and what has been done through public education is a danger.

The second term of Trump has superior to the past 75 years to overcome what is taught by Conservatives in public schools and to replace public education from private schools.

In particular, Trump has begun to abolish the Department of Education to eliminate more policy -making at the state level. The department is responsible for distributing federal funds to public schools, protecting students’ civil rights and supporting high quality educational research. Students have also been responsible for managing more than trillion dollars. It is a function that the administration is moving towards a small business administration, which has no experience in debt management.

The President’s March 2025 Executive Order has reduced the department’s staff to half, especially with a deep decline in the civil rights office, which has been reported that it protects students from illegal discrimination.

Trump’s efforts to reduce education financing have so far targeted the road block with the Congress and the public. The administration aims to reduce education financing US $ 12 billion for fiscal year 2026, which Congress is currently in talks.

And contradicting its position on gaining more control over states and local communities, the administration has also been required to teach what cannot be taught in public schools and should be taught. For example, it has been threatened with funding for school districts that recognize transgender identities or teach about structural racism, white privilege and similar concepts. On the other hand, the White House is emphasizing the use of “patriotic” education, which is shown as the United States as “united, inspiring and strengthening”.

Promoting private education

Since Trump and the states have reduced financial support and resources for public education, they are transferring more money to K-12 private schools.

Recently, the budget bill approved by the Congress in July 2025 gives tax credit to taxpayers to donate private school scholarships. This credit, which is directly contrary to the deduction, is compared to how much tax one has to pay, 7,700 for individuals and doubles for married couple. Total costs can run in the billions, as it is unclear how many taxpayers will benefit.

Meanwhile, 33 states have directed parents to private schools by providing parents of vouchers, tax credit or any other kind of financial support. All together, the states allocated $ 8.2 billion to support private school education in 2024.

Government funding of private schools relieves public education and makes it more difficult for public schools to provide education quality, which most benefits students and the public. For example, in Arizona, many public school charter schools are constantly closing their doors as a result of state support for schools, home schooling and private school vouchers.

The reason for this is that how many students are they have on the basis of which funds are provided to public schools. Since more and more students go to private schools, there is less money to cover fixed expenses such as teachers’ salaries and building restoration. Finally, that means less resources to educate students living in public schools.

To be in accordance with the aspirations

We believe that the country is more than dollars and the Senate to seek support for public education during the loss of private schools.

This would mean abandoning the principle of universal, extraordinary education for children in the United States. And by doing so, Mann’s “good citizen” will be very difficult to build and maintain.

America’s private market system, in which individuals are free to deal with each other with minimal government intervention, have been important for creating prosperity and opportunities in the United States, as our book documents. But, as we establish it, rely on private markets to educate the youth of the United States to educate children that make it difficult for children to learn and create equal opportunities to be economically successful, which makes the country less prosperous and more distributed.

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