Imagine what it would mean to think of public education as a mission shouldered not only by schools, but by a wide range of public institutions committed to knowledge and learning? When we think of public education, do we include the efforts of those in public and independent media, who develop radio, television, movies and games with an educational mission? Do we include organizations like Mozilla, Wikipedia, Creative Commons, and the Internet Archive committed to the production of knowledge in the public interest and in the public domain? Do we think of the efforts in broadband policy that seek to make the online knowledge accessible to families across the country? To me, these are all efforts in public education that are often overlooked in our often exclusive focus on schools.
