Some of the best, and worst aspects of democracy are displayed in recent K-12/post-secondary education interactions. We've seen respect and disrespect, collaboration and confrontation. With the ironically named "Higher" Learning Commission, we've seen abuse of power, particularly their most recent decisions undermining the ability of students to earn college credits while in high school.

In wrapping up her conversation with Joe Nathan, Deborah Meier thinks through what the survival of political democracy will require of schools.

The single most important agreement is that schools in this country should have as one of their central goals: Helping young people develop skills and attitudes necessary to be active, constructive citizens of a democracy.

A school has a public responsibility whenever it accepts public funding. Here are seven dictates that should apply to such publicly funded schools.

Some suburban districts hire detectives and even take families to court, to keep out students, often low income and students of color, from nearby urban districts. I think this is awful. I found many status quo defenders (and I don't see you as one of them) who believe this is perfectly ok.