Public vs. Private : The Early History of School Choice in America - Robert N. Gross

Public vs. Private

The Early History of School Choice in America

By: Robert N. Gross

Hardcover | 16 January 2018

At a Glance

Hardcover


RRP $244.00

$143.90

41%OFF

or 4 interest-free payments of $35.98 with

 or 

Aims to ship in 5 to 10 business days

When will this arrive by?
Enter delivery postcode to estimate

Americans today choose from a dizzying array of schools, loosely lumped into categories of "public" and "private." How did these distinctions emerge in the first place, and what do they tell us about the more general relationship in the United States between public authority and private enterprise? In Public vs. Private, Robert N. Gross describes how, more than a century ago, public policies fostered the rise of modern school choice. In the late nineteenth century, American Catholics began constructing rival, urban parochial school systems, an enormous and dramatic undertaking that challenged public school systems' near-monopoly of education. In a nation deeply committed to public education, mass attendance in Catholic schools produced immense conflict. States quickly sought ways to regulate this burgeoning private sector and the competition it produced, even attempting to abolish private education altogether in the 1920s. Ultimately, however, Gross shows how the public policies
that resulted produced a stable educational marketplace, where choice flourished. The creation of the educational marketplace that we have inherited today--with systematic alternatives to public schools--was as much a product of public power as of private initiative.


Gross also demonstrates that schools have been key sites in the development of the American legal conceptions of "public" and "private". Landmark Supreme Court cases about the state's role in regulating private schools, such as the 1819 Dartmouth v. Woodward decision, helped define and redefine the scope of government power over private enterprise. Judges and public officials gradually blurred the meaning of "public" and "private," contributing to the broader shift in how American governments have used private entities to accomplish public aims. As ever more policies today seek to unleash market forces in education, Americans would do well to learn from the historical relationship between government, markets, and schools.
Industry Reviews
"The general outlines of Gross's story are well known to education historians, but Gross brings a new perspective that offers valuable insights." -- Adam Laats, History of Education "Public vs. Private makes a nuanced and meticulously researched contribution to the study of the emergence of the Catholic school system in the United States and the origins of the contemporary parental choice debate in education." -- Susan B. Reynolds , American Catholic Studies "Gross's account of the politics of choice is authoritative for the time period (roughly from 1840 to 1925) he covers."--Paul E. Peterson, Education Next

More in History of the Americas

Alexander Hamilton - Ron Chernow

RRP $27.99

$26.50

World History : From the Ancient World to the Information Age - DK
Golden State : The Making of California - MICHAEL HILTZIK

RRP $65.00

$50.75

22%
OFF
Lincoln and the Jews : A History, With a New Preface - Jonathan D. Sarna
The Way of Florida : A Novel - Russell Persson