The American public school is a political idea, as well as an educational institution, that is still awaiting full realization. Public schools fail to deliver the promised indiscriminate availability of educational goods and services. Discussions of that failure frequently revolve around the school's educational agenda and questions of pedagogy and curriculum. It can also be understood as an historical disagreement over the political implications of the equal opportunity objective. Early leaders articulated the idea of education to prepare citizens to use political power intelligently and to transcend the accidents of birth and geography in acquiring economic powers. Those who followed through on the idea saw it as a means for homogenizing society and for imposing on it "needed" education. At the root of these measures was a fear of the political implication of equal education. Although our schools today are not truly great, the idea, clouded with ambivalence, still has the potential of an uncompleted dream. (JH)