Vol. 1 No. 1 (2017): Appreciating Public Education

“Appreciating Public Education” is the theme of the inaugural issue of Allies for Education (A4E). Critical issues and perspectives from contributing authors provide opportunities for readers to better understand some of the issues and tensions that exist in our public schools and colleges.  These authors provoke questions for essential conversations about education – not only in offices and boardrooms, but equally essentially, in coffee shops, around the dinner table, and in (age-appropriate) classrooms as well. For example:

• Where, for whom, and why is our system of public education succeeding? Not succeeding?
• What are vouchers and why do they matter?
• How can each of us most effectively serve as public education allies – actively supporting our communities’ students, educators, and administrators – while simultaneously and productively acknowledging the problems of equity, access, and achievement that exist?
• What kinds of conversations might we be able to have across our identity roles in the system – as parents, educators, students, administrators, public officials, and other community members – if we focused first on hearing and understanding each other’s perspectives?