Democracy and Education

Kudos to Jim Holladay for his succinct essay on "Public Education a Cornerstone of American Democracy." Here's a quote:

For most of our history, Baptists have been ardent supporters of the goals and aims of Jefferson's universal education for all citizens and Mann's vision of the common school. That is not surprising, because our vision of the church and the Christian community is inherently democratic. We have known that truth can best be discerned when the community, in all its diversity, speaks to one another.

Beyond that, we have maintained that a "free church in a free society" is the best environment for persons to respond freely to the gospel. As ardently as we have championed freedom of conscience and local church autonomy, we have defended the democratic ideal by both pen and sword.

However, in recent years Baptist voices have arisen calling for the destruction of the "common" school and an end to the vision of educating persons to function in a democratic, diverse republic. One could legitimately question whether these Baptist voices believe in a :free church in a free state" or whether they believe in a controlled church in a controlled state.