Public schooling is dominated by politics.

The simple fact, that tax funded schools are dominated by political machinations, is forever obscured by rhetoric about "education" and the welfare of children.

Of course some education actually takes place, and some of the lessons learned are even related to the intentional topics. Unfortunately it seems like this is incidental to most of the activity surrounding schools, school boards, funding and spending. On top of that we're forever distracted by raging controversies and debates about appropriate content and socio-political biases that are being imparted on our poor impressionable children.

The whole concept is guaranteed to disenfranchise large numbers of people in any diverse population. (Everyone, who can't afford private schooling for their children, will feel that their values and/or religious beliefs are being neglected and that their "poor impresssionable children" are being indoctrinated -- even some of us godless heathen agnostics and atheists will end up get offended by some of the references that do leak into the system).

So you have a system of legally mandatory schooling in an economic environment that makes it impossible for a significant number of families to afford private alternatives. In essence it is a huge government daycare and indoctrination system.

Keep enough kids out of the house for long enough each day that a significant number of families can have dual incomes, at least part of the year, while turning out masses of people with just enough literacy and competence in arithmetic to function as organic robots in our assembly lines and fast food joints --- with only a few managing to glean any real education out of the system. (Most learning is probably accomplished outside of the classroom by self-motivated kids and parents). Thus we prepare the next generation of meat machines (laborers ... "human resources") while enabling our industry to squeeze more time out of the current generation.

The philosophical implications of our system are pretty grim. The politics of free software barely scratch the surface of the systemic problems therein.