FANATICISM AND SCHOOLING IN THE DEMOCRATIC-STATE

The very idea of public schooling is currently under sustained challen ge from an array of groups with sectarian social, political, religious , and cultural agendas. Some of these challenges come in the form of p olicy initiatives such as school vouchers, charter schools, ''parents' rights'' movements, and the rise of home schooling and other forms of nonpublic schooling. In the face of this momentum, the democratic sta te must continually find ways to balance individual parental and commu nity rights against the public interest. But the state cannot bend ove r backward to meet every demand and, in particular, those of fanatics, whose agendas include commandeering educational institutions or optin g out of ''the system'' altogether. By providing a conceptual framewor k for identifying and assessing fanaticism, and then by making the cas e that in a democracy fanatics should not be allowed to run schools of any kind, this article seeks to establish an outer boundary for what forms of school initiatives ought to be permissible. Among a range of examples included for discussion are the claims of certain fundamental ist parents and the racialist ''Christian Identity'' religion that und ergirds much of the militia movement.