One of the most compelling issues in public education involves what it
means for schools to be public. Are they public in funding or public in
oversight and control? Are they public in the values they convey or in
the standards they set? Are they public in deciding curriculum or only
in access to space? David Mathews probes these issues in 19th century
Alabama in ways that no one else has attempted. And he provides lessons
from the past that can inform the present and future.