ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that there are some very important distinctions between philosophy and ideology. Philosophy aims to use reason to arrive at the best consistent and coherent answers regardless of what answers the reasoning produces. Ideology aims to use given answers to find questions and problems to address. This confusion leads many educators to treat educational philosophies, such as essentialism and progressivism, as ready-made answers to be applied to classrooms and schools. But, to be a well-informed educator, there are other ideologies that may be just as important as or more than important than, educational ideologies. The chapter explores political-economic ideology. It claims liberal democracy is the dominant political-economic ideology of the United States. Perhaps educational ideologies permeate the conversations of teachers and administrators, but the political-economic ideologies are much more important in the discourse of educational policy-makers. When state and national legislators debate education, they use political-economic ideologies.
