The cancellations of Education Alternatives Inc.'s contracts in Baltimore and Hartford, Conn., the brief life of the Chicago Corporate Community School, and the limitations of the other initiatives suggest that privatization is not the panacea its advocates claim. Its problems seem to outweigh its prospects. The idealization of business by recent privatizers in the United States has been accompanied by a devaluation of both the fundamental rationale for government initiatives and citizens' capacities for engaging in community activities and movements for reform. While stressing important ideals of individual liberty and freedom, privatizers deny the capacity of either voters or politicians to move beyond self-interest to embrace forms of civic participation. Democratic participation, which involves individuals in a range of roles and responsibilities, is to be abandoned for narrow acts of consumerism.
Public education is more than a simple mechanism for delivering a commodity to consumers.
Through these processes, education becomes a public service that contributes to the comparative well-being and strength of both local communities and the nation as a whole. Insofar as education produces a more informed and responsible citizenry with a greater appreciation for the diversity of the cultures and traditions of our populace, the entire society benefits. And public schools have been the locus for our continually shifting dialogues about civil society and the values and beliefs that bind us as a nation. Despite the myth of public education's intractability, the past decade has seen lively experimentation. There are several vital areas in which students and the nation at large are likely to lose should more schools and districts attempt to solve their problems through privatization.