There are many reasons why the Republican Party is out to destroy public education in America. Just to name a few: they want to privatize the system so that corporate America can reap huge profits, segregate schools according to racial and economic status, to fund religious schools that are suffering from lack of resources, to weaken union participation by destroying collective bargaining rights for teacher organizations and finally of most importantly to propagandize the school curriculum.
While most people think that the effort by republicans is based on an economic issue, budgetary constraints etc., it is really an ideological issue. Most republicans think that too much money is being spent in poor minority neighborhoods thus depriving the rest of the system from their fair share of taxpayer funds. Let’s not kid ourselves-- the tax base in these poor ghettos need supplemental funds just to keep pace with the educational needs of the kids living in them. But let’s not focus on this issue let’s look at some of the ideological reasons behind this effort. With the recent Supreme Court ruling which now makes it legal to use public monies to fund religious institutions it is reasonable to assume that one of the reasons for privatization and the charter movement is to use public funds to provide funding for religious schools, which is immensely popular in the evangelical wing of the Republican Party.
It’s also important to remember that most right leaning republicans believe that public education and the curriculum being taught is manifestly socialistic and it must be changed to preserve the true values of this God fearing country, down with science. Who needs education anyway, look at Sarah Palin, she was almost Vice President of the United States and she doesn’t know anything about our history. But I would submit that the real push for charter and privatization is for corporate America to get their greedy little paws on all that government largesse. Think of the billions of dollars that are at stake. Private schools are in business to make a profit not educate kids. Educating kids is a by-product of the effort. Just remember when you privatize you give up control of the educational process. It’s out of your hands folks. Does anyone tell General Motors how to build a car; I think not.
The truth is we need the public schools to educate our kids. What is lacking is parental participation in the process. Most people have no idea what goes on in their local schools and could care less unless the kid gets in trouble. The only thing folks are really good at is blaming the schools for doing a terrible job with their kids. How many times have teachers faced a kid that is out of control and when confronted with the problem the parent accuses the school of being at fault for the kids actions. Before we give away the public schools to this radical republican agenda we better think what we are in for. It will require parents, teachers and government to solve this perplexing issue. But let us not take the easy way out and say oh well public schools are not working let’s try something else. That’s exactly what these ideologs are banking on. That, as usual, the American people will take the easy way out and allow the private and religious sector to take away the only thing that the people have to preserve their liberty--the right to a free public education. We need to find out what can be done to counter act this movement to privatize the public school system and convince the citizenry that it is worth preserving a public school system that has served us well for many years. The founding fathers would not believe what we are doing to their dream that to have a functioning democracy we must have an educated populous. Let our voices be heard.
Submitted by Bob Rann
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