Public Education

This photo collection traces the US shift from community and private schooling to federal oversight and ongoing political debates about the Department of Education.

The earliest American schools were far from our notions of “public” or “private”—they were neighborhood institutions, often founded by religious groups, that sought to educate children academically and spiritually.

Industrialization transformed childhood—from free-range, mixed-age play long embedded in human culture to the regimented, adult-controlled environments of today’s schools.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), administered every three years by the OECD to 15-year-olds, scores US students below the OECD average in math (465 vs. 472) and only slightly above average in science (499 vs. 485). These figures place U.S. pupils in the lower half of developed nations.

The Department of Education, created in 1980, has faced calls for elimination since day one. Though it contributes a small portion of K–12 funding, it plays a vital role in civil rights enforcement, federal grant distribution, and education research—making its existence and work symbolically controversial.

Voucher programs direct public K–12 funding to families in the form of tuition grants for private schools and are typically targeted to low-income or special-needs students.

Charter schools are tuition-free, publicly funded institutions operating under a contract (“charter”) that grants autonomy in curriculum, staffing, and budgeting in exchange for accountability to performance metrics. They serve millions of students nationwide.

This American Life follows a Missouri district’s court-ordered integration program that dramatically improved achievement gaps, revealing how desegregation remains an effective yet underused education reform.

A 2023 nationwide Pew survey found that 56% of K–12 teachers report discussing race or racial inequality in class, while only 29% mention LGBTQ topics. Many teachers (41%) say these debates have negatively impacted their work.

Around 75% of those students attend religiously affiliated institutions. In Hawaii and Washington, DC, 19% of students attend private schools, the highest enrollment percentages in the country.