public education is often cited as one of the great accomplishments of democratic societies. john dewey’s seminal work, democracy and education, purports that a democracy will not succeed if its voting people are not effectively educated, and thus public education for all people is critical to the success of a democracy. the u.s. has always held education highly in its society, and a free public education has often been cited as one of the major factors for the country’s success. yet with racial integration of the schools in the 1950s, it became clear that the public educational system was seriously flawed. the u.s. was in reality only educating the privileged class and exploiting the underclass as cheap labor. oftentimes lack of education was cited as the reason for the underclass’s lack of success in the society. it can then be argued that the public education system was then and in many cases still is being used as a means of justifying exploitation of the underclass—by setting them up for failure in the educational system.
in spite of great attempts and some progress, there are still drastic inequalities in the educational system. nonwhite students routinely score lower on standardized tests. i believe that it is unclear whether a public educational system can rise to the level that dewey thought was necessary for a successful democracy (that is, able to provide effective education for all) under the current educational structure. it is arguable that the educational system in its current state will only perpetuate the racism and classism that has plagued the u.s. since its inception.
the inequalities that exist in the educational system are apparent in the urban schools, most of which are essentially segregated through various programs of gerrymandering and have the lowest-performing student populations. this project documents the urban public school structures that embody this continued failure — by photographing the entryways of new york city schools. the entryway is the symbol that embodies the society’s investment in the educational system. the entryway often shows the decay and the prisonlike features that typify the modern urban school. the work is highly influenced by the work of bernd and hilla becher’s documentation of the declining mining and industrial industries, and i am in many ways referencing their masterful work.