Public education is the product of the national education system that emerged as a national
organization plan that set education as the domain of state administration. In the 1990s, however, the voices
pointing to systematic deficiencies in the public education system increased. Among them, the logic of
neo-liberalism raised the criticism that it transformed education into business and devastated public education. In
front of this challenge, public education thought had to establish new logic. In the meantime, the ‘public’ idea
of public education has emphasized the initiative of ‘state’, not ‘private’. Therefore, there is a danger that
‘public’ lacking ‘common’ will be transformed into bureaucratization, totalitarianism and marketization of
education. To prevent the distortion of public education, it is necessary to expand the concept of ‘public’ in
public education. Conclusion: According to recent research, it is seen that ‘public’ extends beyond the meaning
of ‘dominant power’ and refer to ‘fair’, and also expands to the meaning of ‘together’ and ‘common’. The
meaning of 'commonality', ‘politics’, ‘public sphere’, ‘fairness’, and ‘public’ are included in ‘public’ which has the
meaning of ‘publicity’ and ‘commonality’ at the same time.