The One Question

Every governing board should answer the compound question: What is the purpose of education, and where do we fit in the pipeline of institutions fulfilling that purpose? This question is so fundamental - and, at least in the United States - so much of a background to debates about PS-12 schools, community colleges, and both public and private universities, that having a cogent, well-reasoned answer lays a foundation for a board to make other weighty decisions.Possible nowhere is this question more in play than around the complex and fraught relationship between large state-sponsored universities and those running state government. Political leaders make hay by arguing that universities should only offer degrees that lead to immediate employability (North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, a Republican, infamously said during a radio interview that, "if you want to take gender studies, that’s fine, go to a private school and take it. But I don’t want to subsidize that if that’s not going to get someone a job." Is getting a job the purpose of education at the University of North Carolina, one of the so-called "public Ivies" and an elite school by many measures? Is that the sole purpose? McCrory and many of his peers around the country apparently think that it is.But, what is the purpose of high school? Is it to smooth the student's way into university? Or into a particular type or brand of university? Is it to be the point where narrowing and funneling begins, so that students graduate knowing exactly the career path - and, therefore, degree program - that lies ahead? For some students, the answer is undoubtedly "yes." Or does high school also have a larger humanistic purpose in exposing students to a range of challenging ideas while giving them a chance to explore parts of their interests and abilities that may lie undiscovered? Is it one way we transmit what is meant by "cultural heritage?"Choices about budget, facilities, staffing and program all reach back to the fundamental question of why we educate in the first place. Failing to have a board-level agreement on this question too often leaves us grappling with other issues minus a shared basis for argument.