American Public Basic Education Reform Since The 1980s, .20 Study

As in most countries in the world, in the U.S.A, the public basic education is one of the most direct connections between the majority of citizens and its government. During a long period, public education has been undertaking training and protecting children, establishing family values and constituting citizens' common benefits. But from the 1980s, this traditional public school system is under serious challenges;the main reason is the change of domestic and international environment, especially political and economical situations. All the new situations stimulate public education of the U.S.A. making an integral adjustment in mechanisms, including education aim, education size and education management, etc.. This kind of adjustment is not only confined in the education mechanism, but also involves outer changes.This paper states that the campaign of American public education innovation in the last two decades should spread from three aspects and go further gradually. Firstly, the education innovation instructed by state. The main hypothesis of this innovation mode is that government should play the most important role in the public education in order to cultivate citizen morality and execute citizen education, get rid of differences and bias between associations and religions. The shortcomings of public school can be conquered by strengthening state ability of controlling school and granting appropriate rights of participation to schools and parents. Secondly, the education innovation instructed by market logic. Its hypothetic theory is that any form of education innovation will not be well effective if the traditional hierarchical bureaucracy cannot be broken. Meanwhile, it considers that market can strengthen public welfare during the period of impelling people to pursue private benefits. Thus, it puts emphasis on the effect of marketing mechanism in distribution of educational resources and the enterprise spirit in education management. Thirdly, the education innovation in which civil society participate broadly. The hypothesis of this innovation mode is that school should be the place that the whole society concerned about. Therefore, the balance among state, market and civil society is vital for education strategy and management. The education innovation of civil society participation emphasizes and pursues the balance among education decision mechanism, education management manners and education guarantee measures. The three modes involve in broad areas like school management, education and teaching as well as school fiscal.Through theoretic analysis and practical test of the three modes of education innovation, this paper believes that the public basic education innovation of the U.S.A is following the helix process from politics to economic, and then to the mixture of politics and economic from macro-view. This development process reflects the way through which people have been exploring the scientific education rules, which should be affirmed. But from the micro-view, innovations to the three aspects have their own advantages and disadvantages in practice. This paper summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of the three modes in education decision mechanism, education management mode and education guarantee measures. The paper states that the essential motivation of the public basic education innovation is to pursue the balance among the political state, market and the citizens' society. Only if the effective relate among state government, market and citizens' society had been achieved and the best effect of forces had been realized, can the value system including justice, equality, efficiency and effect be really achieved. The essential of the public basic education innovation of the U.S.A isto discuss public-private mix education mode, the standards of public-private balance in education system and how to realize these standards. In general, education innovation forces the education decision-makers and the management manners to proceed to be multiplex and the education decision and management be modernized.Finally, on the basis of the research , the paper provides some constructive advice and ideas to the education reform of China.