The End of Public Education

Johannes Yohan: I started my book in part because I felt historians didn't have a response. When Johan started writing about public education, what struck him was how vulnerable it felt as an institution. He immersed himself in the earliest days of public education in the U.S. to try to understand how we came to have schools in the first place. Phil Fragell: The story that Johann tells in democracy's schools is about organizing. It's not just top down; it happens in fits and starts. And ultimately, education is transformed from being a private good that only the wealthy can afford into a public good for all.