For some time, the author and his colleagues at the Kettering Foundation have been concerned that the public schools are losing their connection to a democratic public and that citizens are losing their sense of ownership and responsibility for these schools. Lately, they have also begun to worry that the connection between professional educators and democracy may be weakening. If that is the case, the education professions will become less fulfilling, and the idealism that has inspired young people to enter the field will drain away, and even more will be lost. The professional literature has a good deal to say about the ways that public schools serve democracy. Thus, in this article, the author proposes that more attention must be given to the corollary--the ways in which democracy undergirds public education. One of those ways is through the public's coproduction of education. (Contains 9 endnotes.)