The conservative argument hinges on convincing us that private education is somehow better than aggregated public education. It’s not. The best students in the world come from state-run schools. When we had the best students in the world, it was because we made a philosophical and financial commitment that every student deserved access to the best education that we as a nation could provide. That is what has changed, and that is what we must reclaim.
I simply cannot urge you enough to read what Cassandra has written.
I have tried multiple times to write how important I find this issue, but have never distilled it down to its main points, nor defined the importance of doing something to stop the privatization of our education system, anywhere near as well as was accomplished in this article.
The picture you see above is my alma mater, A.J. Dimond High School. It is no exaggeration to say that THAT public school changed my life forever and taught me valuable lessons which STILL inform the way I conduct myself to this very day.
Dig a little deeper, talk with some of these people a little longer, and you'll hear some hair-raising opinions from them. Such as, why should every child have an education? Why can't some children work instead of going to school?
ReplyDeleteAt heart, these people want a world where there are very clear, very rigid levels of hierarchy and class. With most of us at the bottom. They never seem to realize that if this became reality in America, they too would be at the bottom. Nope, they think they'd be one of the lucky ones who get to lord it over us all.
Just to own up to my mistake, I did remove the portion about President Obama, after being corrected by several commenters.
ReplyDeleteWriting a post about the importance of education should also include adequate research by the author, but in my rush to finish before I started work I failed to meet that criteria.
I will strive to be more thorough going forward.
simply put private education gets higher scores because they can pick and choose who comes to their school. You won't find special needs kids at their schools (Jerry Prevo listening) The teachers are no better at private schools and in a lot of cases they are teachers who couldn't get jobs in the public school system.
ReplyDeletePublic schools are one of the best things America has. I always encourage home-schooled parents to allow their children a year or two, at least, to attend a public school. I know a young girl who went to private school - to get that one-on-one attention for her studies. It wasn't until she attended a public school, that she became more energized and blossomed in her studies and found her true "calling" (so to speak). By having a variety of exposure and mediums of self-expression, she became more complete and self confident. - I am open-minded on this subject. I have home-schooled my kids for a year here and there due to situations, so my viewpoint is one of comparison, not just one-sided!
ReplyDelete(Oh- I must mention also too, teenage girls I know who went to private school, become sexually active at 15, so private school does not "protect" kids from promiscuity or drugs, the so-called bad influences. They just become better at sneaking around.)
Gryphen,
ReplyDeleteGood post. I grew up in India and studied in all public schools.
My heart breaks when I see people do not appreciate the role of public schools and good teachers in society.
I remember in my Thermodynamics graduate class professor commented that one thing is common among all great physicists. "Great physicists have studied under very able teachers". Bingo, there you have it.
8:21 Right about private school teachers! My son went to private high school (many reasons) and although the atmosphere was peaceful and the emphasis solidly on academics, some of the teachers (especially in STEM subjects) were appallingly awful. My daughters, in the one of the worst public school districts in our state, had true gems for teachers who really "knew their stuff" and how to teach it.
ReplyDeleteSure, somehow public school unexpectedly turned out to fortuitously be a good experience for you, Gryphen, but try to imagine how much more majorly awesomer your life would be today (and yesterday, also, too) if you'd been homeschooled by doG-fearin', bibble-thumpin', science-averse, xenophobic, evolution & climate change denying, non-reading tee-hee-hee party 8th grade graduates like growing numbers of lucky kids today are.
ReplyDeleteAnon7:51am I totally agree with you.
ReplyDeleteMy t-bag, deep south relatives remark that (black) children do not appreciate the opportunity to go to school, and that opportunity should be taken away from them. That is, education should have to be "earned" - yes, by the child(!) or bought privately by the parents.
They would like to see an America that is either (faith-based)home-schooled or has private (military-based) academies for the wealthy.
This kind of talk reminds me of the days when slaves and women were not considered worthy of an education.
There is a line in one of the best television series ever made: "The Wire" by a character named Brother Mouzone. "You know what the most dangerous thing in America is? A nigger with a library card."
Knowledge is power; those who seek to control knowledge seek to control power.
I too feel that this a big conspiracy. From controling education, what who and how what they learn.they will be in control. Controling wages since they are all bent on gutting labor unions. Ppl will have to work for whatever they say, if they get to work at all. They want dumb ppl so they will have no opposition. Corporations will own every road ,bridge, park and so forth. The cities will be owned and operated by corporations and if you don't tow the line no job no kind of education for children. Wait they will have all kinds of businesses that cater to taking children from parents that are unruly or that parents can't feed or cloth according to their standards. It all will come down to being slaves again. That's why they are trying to tell ppl that slaves had it better that today. I can see tolls on every road to pay for it, Pay they tolls or stay at home. The sex trade will boom. They will promise ppl to educate thier ch, or train them for a trade. Wasn't there a congressman someway involved with the sex trade ? Don't laugh think about all this going on how easily they have ppl believing this is all good for them- gut public education,no abortion, no birth control, women need to be submissive, lower pay for women not equal to a man ,lowering rape offensives, making laws abt women and pregnancies, less pay, laws abt child labor and how long they can work while in school . selling everything to corporations even towns. They have already taken over the supream court, They have alresdy got planned parenthood defunded in some states, no healthcare chipping away at SS medicare and any entitlement not for their buddies. They have public education so defunded it's unbelieable. But we are in 3 wars.
ReplyDeleteThese people are terrified to have their beliefs challenged. If they allow their children to be exposed to different thoughts, cultures, beliefs, then their "vulnerable" children will be corrupted and "lost" forever. What they don't realize is that they are self-fulfilling that prophecy for their children.
ReplyDeleteA good friend home schooled her child - but not for religious reasons, as she started approaching puberty she realized the importance of peer socialization and group learning experiences and then started to bring her child to a public school several times a week. This combination of personalized learning and peer learning really allowed this young woman to blossom - she is now studying at one of the top U's in CA.
Public schools have been attacked so hard with budget cuts, overcrowding, etc. that parents such as my friend didn't want that for their child and was able to work it out to best suit their needs. But I believe she is the exception on this example.
Many other home schooled kids I have met were kept out of public school due to religious reasons or sheer paranoia about having their child exposed to "public" education - meaning poor children, children of other races, or mentally/physically disabled children. These children did not receive good teaching or lesson plans. Many never completed high school and didn't gain their GED. Other's barely made it through but now find themselves hugely challenged in basic college courses because they have no solid understanding of the concepts - or they challenge those proven concepts, i.e., the scientific method.
Rick Scott not only destroying privatizing the school system, he having online home schools for K5 to 12th. You know how hard it is to get some kids to do their home work, how parent suppose to get their kids to do homeschooling on a computer during the day. They are trying it out this year!!! Most parents work during the day, so who will be home with the kids?
ReplyDeleteI don't have kids, but I've shown the card I got in the mail to my niece, she said no way she will pull her child out of school.
For the last ten years, the schools have been just processing centers. Teachers are told what to teach and how to teach it, which is why parents have been wanting charter schools. Teachers need to be given some freedom in teaching and working with students and making the classroom friendly for parents.
ReplyDeleteWith any discussion of public education, we should discuss the school boards and the Republican party's fifty states plan... and stealth candidates.
ReplyDeleteSimply put, very, very few people want to be on school boards. It's a time commitment and it can be really boring. School board elections are the least contested elections we have, especially in the smaller districts. So how do you control a school district? You get people living in the district who go to the church you approve of and get them to file for election. No campaign speeches- no public appearances. And a very nondescript statement about their position on education in the voter handbook.
Then the minister of their church- or somebody active in their church- lets everybody know that this person is a god-fearing, right-thinking person who OUGHT to be on the school board and prevent those kids from being given free condoms and hearing about evolution.
The morning after the election, guess who's elected? If there IS another candidate, he's astonished by the other candidate's sudden win.
If you have a majority of the school board, you control educational policy. You control curriculum. You control the hiring and firing.
And parents do NOTHING. Nothing, unless they personally are upset about something, and then they're apt to decide that they don't want their kid retaliated against so they either pull their kid out of that school, or tell their kid to just suck it up until he graduates. It's maddening.
Again: the neighboring school district from mine- and I was on the board of directors in our district- had three school directors who attended an extremist rightwing church. So did the superintendant they hired. For years, any teacher they hired got their degree from a church-based school. How do we know this? Because every year they published a circular with the pictures of the new hires and their c.v.
It took ten years before the community took back a majority position on the school board, fired the superintendant, and started updating their educational policies.
THERE IS NOTHING MORE IMPORTANT THAN PUBLIC EDUCATION. It's the foundation of our democracy.
Incidentally, we are from a small district. Our athletic teams typically competed against equally small religiously-based schools. Pretty astonishing how those kids actually behaved. Seems the parents all think if they take the kids to a church school, the kid is actually going to believe what he's told. No. Usually, they learn to lie and hide.
Tweet from Joy Behar this morning:
ReplyDeleteJoyVBehar
It was so hot yesterday, I pictured a Palin presidency just for the chill it sent up my spine. #itwassohot
Every day we're bought and sold by RWNJs.
ReplyDeleteWhere will it end?
Can it end?
Absolutely @8:21!
ReplyDeleteWhere is Queen Teabagger Stupid Sarah screaming that these people wouldn't want to educate Trig?
There are quite a few private schools that would not accept a learning disabled child, no matter how high functioning.
Private schools - soon to be taken over by the likes of KOCH Bros who will have the say of who heads the schools, who teaches in the schools and they set the curriculum
ReplyDeleteMore on corporate push for privatization -
ReplyDeletehttp://thinkprogress.org/education/2011/07/11/265663/voucher-tea-party-go-away/
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/11603/publicopoly_exposed/
I am fortunate to live in an area with great public schools. At one time, I did consider homeschooling my kids (for different reasons). I am so glad that I gave that idea up. I am a well educated person (two masters degrees), but I could not possibly give the kids the education that they need. Most of the teachers at the high school level here have masters degrees in the subject that they teach. These kids are exposed to some top notch educators who really know their stuff. My kids are now well prepared for college. Homeschooling almost seems like child abuse to me since in most cases I am guessing, it leaves kids so unprepared.
ReplyDeleteI love most of the comments thus far.
ReplyDeleteI hope this means people are waking up to the chilling truth: the far- right have been planning this takeover for a long, long time, infiltrating each of the Seven Mountains. They are serious.
Are we up to the challenge? Or are we simply going to sit on our collective behinds watching DWTS and American Idol, cop shows and the like. We really have to care enough to do something, to get involved. At least paying attention is a good first step.
Public education is worth saving.
If you don't want to be a school board candidate, at least attend the meetings, visit the schools. Paying attention is something those far-right folks don't expect us to do. Just showing up and listening may be enough to tamp down their plans.
My husband's two sisters sent their kids to church-based private schools. Of the eight of them (the oldest is 31; the youngest 23) only two are married. There are three illegitimate kids, two divorces, and four college degrees. His brother (who is a church-going guy) and we sent our kids through the public schools. Of those six, there are six college degrees, two advanced degrees, four marriages, no divorces, and three lovely grandchildren, none of whom was born outside of marriage. The "Christian" kids have had so much more trouble becoming part of society and even forming lasting relationships. There is nothing wrong with our public schools that a little parental involvement can't cure. That goes for the morals of the children as well. Where did the Palin girls get the idea that it was fine to drink before you are of legal age, and have sex whenever you felt like it? Not from the public schools they occasionally attend, but from good old mom and dad, who set such a wonderful example for them morally and educationally.
ReplyDeleteI agree 100% with some of the commenters above. We're headed at pell-mell speed for a "slave" society where there's no minimum wage, no unions, no rights for women and no child labor laws. Makes it easier to pick and choose who will get a "private" education--probably Bible-thumpin', fear-mongering, Koch-worshipping bullshit with no emphasis at all on science, math, the arts, civics, history. Those elite classes be reserved only for the children of the very rich who will oversee the rest of the writhing masses.
ReplyDeleteKids will be working right alongside Mom, Dad, Granny and Grampy for untold hours a day, without breaks, for a nickel an hour. May be a bit of an exaggeration, but just look at pre-1900s photos of kids working in sweatshops and mines.
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?st=grid&co=nclc
But hey, those pictures are in black and white, and our world is in color, so it's all in the past, never to happen again...right?
Mr. Love&Knishes and I were watching the Apollo Mission specials this past weekend on the Science Channel, and had a revelation: the 60s, 70s and early 80s will probably go down in history as America's golden years (barring the Vietnam War and platform shoes). By that I mean--education was a huge deal--we were in space! We landed a man on the moon safely! We started a shuttle program! Our country was leading in innovation! It wasn't a Xtreme Xtian RWNJ sin to desire the best for your kids, or if you were a kid at the time, for yourself. We were EXPECTED to excel and be productive citizens someday.
We were both depressed and for once, thankful we're both over 50. How sad is that? We worry about our friend's kids and keep telling them how important an education is, and not to be swayed by the dumbnitude of the "reality shows" being shoved down their throats by the corporate media every day. PS: it's working!
and additionally.....
ReplyDeleteRepublicans Throw Conservation to Curb, Eviscerate EPA, and Pump Pollutants Into America's Air, Water and Land
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-mike-honda/republicans-throw-conserv_b_895466.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HP%2FPolitics+%28Politics+on+The+Huffington+Post%29
Republicans are 100% against education. They do best with those with the least education. So they feel education of any kind is detrimental to the Republican Party. It's as simple as that.
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans are trying to destroy everything. I cannot believe what they are doing in Congress! It makes me sick to watch them!
ReplyDeleteVoting Americans need to get them out of office on the state, local and national levels across America. They are in the process of making us a third world country!
"... but in my rush to finish before I started work I failed to meet that criteria."
ReplyDeleteIf you don't have multiple criteriA, you have a criteriON.
criterion (plural criteria or criterions)
1. A standard or test by which individual things or people may be compared and judged.
Education is one of the "7 Mountains' that Dominionists seek to control. They can do exactly that by privatizing education.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who works in a city elementary school, I am well aware of the challenges that classroom teachers face every day. They are increasingly pressured to 'teach to the test' and forced to work with classes that continue to grow as budgets continue to shrink. They try their best to educate all of our students, many of whom are living in poverty and some of whom don't know where their next meal is coming from or where they will be sleeping tonight. I see how the teachers are continually improving their skills with professional development, often on their own time and, thanks to the new contract in my district, at their own expense.
ReplyDeleteI understand that circumstances require some families to home school their children because of the danger of the local public schools or the distance and/or inaccessibility of the schools in more rural areas. However, I also see the complete incompetence of some parents who barely made it through their own education and are now trying to educate their children. I shudder to think of the generation of narrow-minded, unskilled, bigoted children we are creating through the parents who home school their children in order to control their beliefs and prevent them from being exposed to other people and ideas.
If the radical right, assisted by the corporate education sector, achieves the goal of destroying public education, we will quickly become a third world nation.
What I notice about home schooled kids in my freshman engineering courses is an inability to think outside the box. They're pretty good at memorizing and parroting, not so good at critical thinking.
ReplyDeleteThe key to excellent schooling is involved, interested, committed, and knowledgeable parents, period. No matter if the school is public, private, charter, or at home, if the parents think they can dump their kids in the hopper and end up with model adult citizens at 18 without having to a lift a finger, there will be problems. That said, the locality makes a huge difference, too. In some areas, the private schools are significantly better because the involved parents send their kids there, and in other areas, the public schools are better, for the same reason. You also have to look at individual schools - a rule of thumb for teachers is that the principal makes the school. One local middle school just got done with 5 years of a terrible principal and has hired someone they hope will be better. Parents were pulling their kids out in droves. But the nearby private school also has a horrible principal, so bad that the school has a 50% staff AND student turnover every year.
ReplyDeleteThe GOP is trying to destroy public schools for 3 reasons: 1) public schools are paid for by taxes; 2) public schools teach everyone the same things about how democracies are supposed to work and sometimes even how to think for themselves; and 3)public schools expose kids to people who are not just like them. Obviously it's easier to be all superior when you withhold critical information and experiences from the little people.
KOCH has already embedded themselves in some university and have taken over control of who is hired.
ReplyDeleteI can't help but think that the latest announcement about Sullivan's "Education Summit", helped to make Carol Comeau's decision to take a years earlier retirement easier.
ReplyDeleteThe asshole Scott Walker cut $800 million from Wisconsin's public school system to funnel it to religious schools as "school choice". But TODAY begins the state senate recall elections... we only need to win 3 out of 6 to stop this maniac.
ReplyDeletethe problem with pubic schools is they just let any buddy go to em wich is how come there all fulla kids with funny ass names who dont look like no rull americans i know !!!
ReplyDeletepubic schools are doin a terribel job any ways since lookit all the haters who yelled when sara pailin told about the midday drive of paul reveere warnin the briddish guys how the trouble is comin, the trouble is comin !!!
of coarse the libtarts are jellus that even when sara pailin was runnin allaska all by herself with no help she still some how found time to home school her kids and lookit how grate they turned out !!! okay exept may be Brisdulls baby but that was a honest misteak wich just proofs shes human and shes truelly sorry about it and shes praid to god to foregive her wich he has did cuz god is love and also he knows the hole thing was that f'd up littel a-hole mister im so gay hollywood levys fallt !!!
so any parents who is a rull american needs to yank there kids outta pubic schools rite now and ether send em to good christian schools or else the moms coud just stop cleanin the house for a hour or 2 every day and home school em there selves cuz if sara can do it any buddy can !!!
then were gonna save america by doin saras ideeya of closein all the pubic schools by us all votein the same wich the libtarts wont cuz there to bizzy beein haters !!! sorry but that is how our grate demoncrassy works so ha ha and dont say we didnt warm you !!!
and any buddy who dont jjoin us its ether cuz there lazy or there a moran !!!
im jest say in !!!
There was a time not that long ago, that I would have read the headline of this thread, and assumed it was from one of those conspiracy nutjobs who wear tinfoil hats to keep the aliens from indoctinating them.
ReplyDeleteWhat a sad state of affairs that now, such a statement is so easily accepted, by anyone who is paying even the slightest attention to what is going on.
We have a real challenge before us, as well: I sent something from this blog to a rightwinger friend, who replied that she was able to tell in just four seconds, that the five minute piece was total bullshit--at which point she quickly deleted it.
I was amazed...even if it was five minutes of Sarah Palin screeching her same old tired talking points, if someone sent me something saying they thought of me when they heard it, I'd suffer through it to the end, if for no other reason than to try to determine what exactly made that person think of me.
I was reminded by this admission of a four second kill, of those three monkeys portrayed with hands in front of eyes, ears, and mouth.
"Don't go feeding me anything that's going to make me reconsider the concrete-headed position I've taken on things!"
Pathetic.
others agree prosecute Bush & Cheney:
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/5vygo2q
Vert's excellent article doesn't go far enough in naming the religious/conservative schools which have benefitted from Bush's ridiculous 'faith-based initiatives'.
ReplyDeleteRegent University and Regent school of law, alma mater to 150+ members of the Bush administration; Regents original name, the Christian Broadcast Network University, founded by Pat Robertson. The school's motto is: Christian leadership to change the world.
Liberty University, an evangelical institution founded by Jerry Falwell in 1971, teaches young earth creationism in its biology department, and credits creationism with giving a better explanation for the origins of life than does evolution. In 2009 the school Attempted to disband the College Democrats, an LU organization, claiming, "The Democratic Party platform is contrary to the mission of Liberty University and to Christian doctrine."
For now, the tide of religious education is being held at bay by our judiciary, for example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Christian_Schools_International_v._Roman_Stearns (2009) and Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School Board (2005), although the aim of lawsuits like those two are to force a hearing at the Supreme Court level.
And privatized schools have already suffered epic fails. Google "Charter school scandals" or "Phoenix University rip-offs" to get an idea of the fraud at the heart of privatized schools.
Businesses love the idea of running schools at the expense of the taxpayer- free money for construction, maintenance, and 'miscellaneous' expenditures, and absolutely no accountability. Should the school fail, five or six years down the line, the company declares bankruptcy, changes its name, and begins anew in another state, where the same fraud has already taken place. One fraudster leaves, another takes its place, and your child's education is the only casualty.
So, two massive charades: 1) Christian education masquerading as scholarship, which seems intent on creating, at some point in the future, a critical mass of 'experts' to peer-review Intelligent Design articles and provide credibility; and 2) CEOs who see a ready market, acting as the middle-man between billion dollar state education budgets and children who must attend a school.
Privatized education has already failed massively. The religious right education/indoctrination continues to lose case after case in front of the bench. The money these groups have and the pressure they can put on every form and level of government, from local school boards to Congress, are immense.
Gryphen, so glad you brought this topic up, and the article IS a keeper!
ReplyDeleteMy sister moved to New Jersey 19 years ago because her husband got transferred. The public school system there was one of the best on the east coast. Her kids not only flourished, but excelled.
Since Governor Christie took office, the difference is palpable. Her kids transferred from public colleges there to out of state public colleges, and my sister and her husband are seriously considering moving just because of all the cuts Christie has put into place.
We need to push for our Public School System. They prepare their students for the real world and produce productive citizens.
This privatization and running schools as businessess has to stop.
We also need to look into the Texas Textbook Issue, my chidren's teachers are consstantly amending the lies and mistakes they're allowing to be published, and it shouldn't be part of their job description.