Freedom of Education
Subtitle: The Dutch Political Battle for State Funding of all Schools both Public and Private (1801-1920)
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: February 2009
Format: Trade paper
Number of pages: 180
ISBN-13: 9781440493423
Subjects: Education history
Description: In Holland throughout the nineteenth century a political battle raged over the issue of the State monopoly on tuition-free education. It was opposed under the banner of "Freedom of Education" and the Separation of Church and State. The Dutch called it "De Schoolstrijd" (The Battle of the Schools). The policy issues surrounding school vouchers and school choice in America are in essence the same issues that were at the heart of De Schoolstrijd. This book traces the history of that battle. The lessons of Dutch history point to alternative solutions to the issue of school vouchers and school choice that could be applied to the American debate. The Dutch equated Freedom of Education with Freedom of Conscience and Freedom of Religion, and came to realize that a secular tuition-free Public School forced parents into making a choice between their conscience and their pocketbook. The Dutch solution was the Separation of School and State by funding all schools equally, both public and private.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: The Velvet Revolution: 1795; title: The Kingdom of the Netherlands: 1813; title: A New Constitution: 1848; title: The Education Act of 1857; title: The Education Act of 1878; title: A New Constitution: 1917; title: Documents from the Schoolstrijd; title: Thorbecke on the Question of Education Policy in the Context of a Forthcoming Law (1829); title: De Savornin Lohman on the Armistice in the Schoolstrijd (1889); title: Conclusions for America in the Twenty-first Century; title: Biographies; title: Political Parties; title: Time Line (1795-1920); title: Governments; title: Bibliography; title: Index