The Imprint of Business Norms on American Education By Dameon V ...

ability to think independently and creatively as well as a way to allow instructors to teach democratically and in environments that are free from external authorities (Urban & Wagoner, 2000). Therefore, what is meant by the democracy of education is educating under the ideals of liberty: a liberal education. This sort of education is involved with the “life of reason” and how educators help learners “locate activities in aspects of knowledge” as having “intrinsic value rather than only capable of serving as means to other ends” (Bailey, 1984, p. 20).

Bailey (1988) also asserted that “liberal educators…seek to help people become more autonomous—bad democratic educators hinder the development and enhancement of personal autonomy” (p. 74). In effect, the presuppositions that democracy is founded upon require that the aim of educating pupils should be creating rational and critical autonomy (p. 70). These ideals are contextualized on moral grounds to serve the good of the people.

In the United States, the Constitution gives the responsibility of educating citizens to each state, which maintains autonomy in its educational processes (Cullop, 1999). In sustaining democratic principles, each state has an established clause in its constitution that public education will be provided for its citizens (U.S. Department of Education, 2006). Also, established entities (i.e., boards of education), whose meetings are open to the public, govern the educational processes relatively⁶ independently of the state, thus establishing the ideals of a democratic system of education (Education Commission of the States, 2006). In this way, the education system consults and serves its citizens.

In this regard, education is defined “as a public good and a fundamental right” (Giroux, 1998). This systemic conceptualization of education asserts the primacy of democratic values over capitalist values. This is where the problem of corporate interests in educational processes is most visible.

Corporate interests aim to preserve the free-enterprise system—that is, an economic system contextualized in free trade and competition by private industries where items are produced, bought, and sold for moneyed profit within the laws of justice (Smith, 1776/1937, book 4, chap. 9).