What is Public Education?

Public education is required for children. These public schools are supported by the taxes of the people.

Public education is education required for the children as stipulated by the laws in the government - national, regional, or local – and financially supported by the civil through taxes.

Public education is often provided for basic education, K -12 education, or primary and secondary education. Most of the time, public education is not provided for post-secondary education, advanced education, or universities, colleges, or technical schools.

Public Education System

Public education in the United States is customarily controlled by individual states. These states in turn delegate the task of daily operations to school districts working at the local level. Elected school boards from the local districts direct the public primary and secondary schools in accordance with the guidelines of the state government.

In other countries, the public education system is centralized at the national level such as those in France, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

Public Education Defined

Public schooling is often provided to groups of students in a classroom setting. “Public education” is not the same with “public schooling” because public education can be done at home or in other places such as shopping mall or offices.

“Public education” is also not similar to the “publicly funded education”. Government may fund education that may not necessarily be public education. Publicly funded education comes in the form of grants-in-aid in private schools and voucher systems.

A public school may not rely entirely on public funding such as money donated by philanthropists. What makes it public school is the fact that it is owned by the government and not private person/entity.

Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) commented about public education in his November 23, 1900 speech: “Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his own tail. It won't fatten the dog.” School, therefore, is a necessary tool to curb crime and violence.

Public Education Funding

The No Child Left Behind Act gives the Department of Education the discretion to withhold funding if a school, district or even state is found to have violated some rules and does not exert efforts to comply. The federal funding however does not comprise a huge chunk of the school funding.

Most of public education funding is derived from the state government and the local property taxes. Several organizations comprised mostly of teachers have been lobbying for either more funding or reforms in the allocation of tax money since some schools have limited funding compared to other schools based in more affluent districts.

Public education offers the students the opportunities for advancement and a better future. It also translates to a more peaceful and orderly society. Government, therefore, should make funding of public schools one of the top priorities.

Source:

Imber, Michael. "Equity in School Funding". American School Board Journal. Virginia: National School Boards Association, Oct. 2004.