Civic education for religious freedom: Liberal republicanism and the common good in American public schools

What is the proper role of public schools in forming good citizens of a religiously plural society? To answer that question for the contemporary American context, this dissertation articulates a new theory of civic education that draws upon both liberal and republican traditions of political philosophy.;The dominant contemporary theories of civic education, both liberal and republican, founder on questions of religion and public education because they fail to appreciate important features of both. A more compelling, durable and complete account of civic education would recognize the central role of religious freedom in fostering the common good of a diverse polity, and would understand education as a public, not private, good. Chapters 1 through 3 render this judgment after examining the history of the common schools as well as the educational and political philosophy that have informed their operation and design since the nineteenth century. Recent attempts among both republicans (Michael Sandel, Philip Pettit and Cass Sunstein) and liberals (Stephen Macedo and Michael McConnell) to reclaim the civic in educational theory or to place religious freedom at the center of a civic educational theory have failed---each in its own way---to adequately resolve the dual problems of religion and civic education.;I try to overcome these problems in Chapter 4 by outlining a theory of "civic education for religious freedom" that would create citizens who are well-equipped and inclined to contribute to the common good of a religiously diverse polity. I describe the principles that inform this theory (most importantly the interconnection of religious freedom and the common good), the virtues that sustain these principles, and the institutions required to nurture them. The chapter concludes with an argument for the continuing importance of one of these institutions---public schools---despite growing arguments by "educational pluralists" that they lack civic value. Chapters 5 and 6 test the adjudicatory power of this theory with two case studies: school voucher programs and religious studies courses in public schools.