The Political Economy of the Decline of American Public Education

Abstract

THE state of American public education has become something of a national obsession. A mournful consensus seems to have formed around two conclusions: (1) American schools have performed poorly in comparison with schools in other countries, and (2) things have gotten worse over time. As my title indicates, this article is more motivated by recent changes in performance than by its average level. It is also motivated by a fact often neglected in discussions of school performance. The overwhelming majority of American elementary and secondary schools are political creatures. They are publicly owned, operated, directed, and funded. I want to see if the political character of the marketplace within which schools operate has something to do with the way they perform. For reasons elaborated subsequently, the data I analyze are incapable of providing a complete explanation of the decline of public school performance. So, even if this decline is entirely a political phenomenon, I could