Is public education the foundation of American democracy, as NEA President Becky Pringle tweeted earlier this spring?

Well, no, not literally. The American experiment that started in 1776 long predated any sort of public education. It’s true that Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, wrote some nice words about the value of education, but his vision was far more limited than what we might think of as public education today.

The reality is that “public” education wasn’t open to all Americans for much of the nation’s history. Black students didn’t have a right to attend the same schools as white students until the Brown v. Board decision in 1954. Students with disabilities were not guaranteed a free, appropriate public education until the 1973 Rehabilitation Act.

Hard-won lawsuits and pieces of legislation have made schools open to more kids, but they’re still not public in the same way a public park or an FM radio station is free and open to all.

That’s because education has space constraints. There are only so many seats at a school, so local districts reserve spots only for those people who can afford to live in the surrounding community.

I’ll use my own family as an example. We live in Fairfax, Virginia, one of the wealthiest counties in America. There are six “public” high schools within a 15-minute drive of our house, but my kids are zoned for only one of them. We can’t just pick whichever school is the best fit for each child. Our district has a school assignment map that looks as badly gerrymandered as many congressional districts.

Families who can’t afford to buy access to a seat at their preferred public school have to resort to other options. About 12% of students are lucky enough to have magnet or charter schools to choose from, but many do not — and the consequences can be severe.

Read the full article about public education and democracy by Chad Aldeman at The 74.