Education Reform As Economic Reform‪.‬

In 1642 the Massachusetts Bay Colony enacted an ordinance pronouncing, for the first time on these shores, that public education was a fundamental mission of the state. The Law of 1642 expressed concern over lack of knowledge of English and of the "Capital Lawes." By 1647 towns in Massachusetts of at least 50 people were required to hire a school master, because the "Old Deluder Satan" was prone to tempting children into ignorance of the scriptures. Education has thus since the earliest days of the country been seen as a public function in the United States. In the founding era, Jefferson was the most famous advocate of broad public schooling. But it was not until the era of industrialization and mass immigration in the latter portion of the 19th century that public schools, from grammar school through the universities, became an imperative in most states. The need to acculturate immigrants and to prepare citizens to participate in an increasingly sophisticated economy was a primary driving force in this movement. But at least since the publication in 1983 of "A Nation at Risk," American public schools have been as notorious for their flaws as they once were celebrated for their necessity. What are seen as the myriad problems of public schools have drawn much comment, often including highly detailed solutions to what are claimed to be highly specific yet complete causes of these problems. The maze of competing diagnoses and proposals makes education reform a difficult problem to study. But reforming education shares some features with the problem of reforming economic policy, a widely studied problem. Economic reform seeks to improve economic growth and hence the opportunity available to residents of the reforming country, and educational reform similarly seeks to better provide children with the skills that open up more choices to them. This article applies some of the findings of the literature on economic reform to draw lessons about repairing American public education.