In everyday language, whether a school is described as "public" or not is determined by the way it is funded and by who is allowed to attend it. Ideally however, a public school should also be defined and evaluated by its unique goal--to renew a public by providing the young with the skills, dispositions, and perspectives required to…

Discusses the liberal-communitarian debate from the perspective of moral philosophy, examining strengths and weaknesses of liberal and communitarian moral thought, noting implications for education, and arguing that reconciliation requires developing criteria for determining what conditions merit support to maintain and reproduce each culture's…