Public Deliberation About Education Policy? Some Egalitarian Concerns.

Deliberative theory has served two purposes in recent studies of education policy-making: as a lens through which to examine existing practices, and as an ideal to aspire to when those practices come up short. There is an inherent circularity here, though, which eclipses a prior theoretical question: Should deliberative theory be applied to education policy-making? My purpose in this paper is to explore this overlooked normative question, from an egalitarian perspective. I argue that deliberating to decide foundational matters of education policy is especially problematic - a case I advance by distinguishing education from other social goods (e.g. housing or healthcare) by its direct bearing on citizens' standing in public deliberation. I argue that this distinctiveness makes an adequate education a precondition for fair deliberation, rather than a social good that might be secured through deliberation. This casts serious doubts on using deliberation for education policy-making in a polity characterized by vast educational inequalities, and points to a rights-based approach instead. I also highlight two features of American education - de facto segregation, and the availability of exit options - that further challenge the appropriateness of upholding deliberative theory as a model for education policy-making ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]