Neal McCluskey of the Cato Institute shares with Washington Examiner readers two recent examples of the problems created by a public education system that relies on majority rule.

There is a widespread belief that public schools are the glue that holds diverse America together. As political theorist Benjamin Barber has described them, “They are the forges of our citizenship and the bedrock of our democracy.” Of course “democracy,” at its most basic level, means majority rule. But what happens when the majority does things the minority doesn’t like, even despises? We learn the sad answer constantly: conflict, repression or mush.

Two ongoing battles — one in New York, the other in Louisiana — drive this reality home.

In New York’s East Ramapo Central School District, racial, ethnic and religious fevers have run hot for years as the district’s Orthodox Jewish majority has battled over resources with its largely African-American and Hispanic minority. In Louisiana, creationism continues to be taught in many public schools, to the dismay of those who believe that only science belongs in science classes. …

… How do we get the peace necessary for social cohesion without eliminating every potentially controversial thing from every school? Let all people freely choose educational options by funding students, not schools, through scholarship tax credits that let people choose whether to donate and to whom. In other words, stop basing education in winner-take-all “democracy” and start basing it on the true foundations of American life: liberty and equality for all.