In a series of e-mails and interviews, Teri Adams, the president of the Idependence Hall Tea Party Association, explains that her organization is involved in its voucher advocacy because it believes “public schools should go away.” Adams said that their ultimate goal is to “shut down public schools and have private schools only“:
“We think public schools should go away,’’ says Teri Adams, the head of the Independence Hall Tea Party and a leading advocate — both in New Jersey and Pennsylvania — of passage of school voucher bills. The tea party operates in those two states and Delaware. They should “go away,” she says, because “they are hurting our children.’’ [...] Adams says the current voucher program “discriminates” against wealthier students by providing public subsidies only to inner-city children in allegedly failing schools. Her group’s e-mails pushing vouchers caught the attention of James Kovalcin of South Brunswick, a retired public school teacher who asked Adams for clarification. She responded via email: “Our ultimate goal is to shut down public schools and have private schools only, eventually returning responsibility for payment to parents and private charities. It’s going to happen piecemeal and not overnight. It took us years to get into this mess and it’s going to take years to get out of it.”
Well there you go, any questions about the motives of the radical right wing now?
These people are willing to completely dismantle the American public school system, which has leveled the playing field to allow those who come from humble beginnings to rise to the top through hard work and access to a good education, in exchange for ONLY providing an adequate education for those that can afford it.
Essentially they are trying to gut the very foundation of the American dream, and attempting to impose a class system in this country, where only those who are born with means can achieve success. That is certainly NOT what the founders envisioned for this country:
After the Declaration of Independence, 14 states had their own constitutions by 1791, and out of the 14, 7 states had specific provisions for education. Jefferson believed that education should be under the control of the government, free from religious biases, and available to all people irrespective of their status in society. Others who vouched for public education around the same time were Benjamin Rush, Noah Webster, Robert Coram and George Washington.
And these Teabaggers dare to call themselves "patriots?"
Their disconnect from reality is breathtaking. How many TP'ers are there out there who make over 50k a year? I haven't seen the demographics, but it sure seems to me that the majority of TP'ers are low income earners. Which means that if they succeed in destroying public schooling their kids won't get an education! Of course, they believe that their "charities" will provide that quality, world class education for them. I don't think so!
ReplyDeleteBachmann has said the same thing, somewhere. They want to educate the rich white male only. Education is not to be 'wasted' on minorities (what happens when whites ARE the minority in 20 years?) females, the handicapped, the special needs children..nope, not for them. This is maybe the scariest part of the whole agenda, because it will gut America.
ReplyDeleteThe Tea Party and GOP are trying to RUIN our country. RUIN IT, in the name of corporatism. STAND UP FOR OUR RIGHTS AGAINST THESE TREASONOUS PEOPLE! Soon, the world will be owned by giant corporations and governments won't even matter.
ReplyDeleteLet's say this happens and schools become private, there will be hundreds, if not thousands, of dedicated teachers (you know, the ones like you Gryphen, who got into teaching for all the right reasons, and not for the money, as if there was money to be had from teaching) will take it upon themselves to educate the poor children of this country. This I know.
ReplyDelete"Patriot" is yet another Rovian buzzword, like "UnAmerican" was when G.W. "Slappy" Bush lied us into illegal wars. It makes the feeble minded paint chip eaters feel that they belong to an exclusive club, and that they're better than the rest of us. The Patriot Baggers are the Kochs' dimwitted, cult member mouthpieces.
ReplyDeleteI'll repeat what I said yesterday on the public school post: a well-rounded education on Planet Koch will be reserved for members of the Lucky Sperm Club (kids of the very rich). They, in turn, will oversee the rest of the Great Unwashed, whose kids will be forced into subpar "private" schools (or perhaps schooled for an hour a day at their factory jobs, if they're lucky). Of course, all their classes will have a heavy emphasis on Dominionist indoctrination, thanks to the "charities" who will run them. Only we can stop this madness with our voices and votes.
Let me see if I have this right. The teabaggers, who believe NOTHING should be funded by the government, say that it's not fair that people who can afford private schools don't get government funding for it.
ReplyDeleteReally, Gryphen, you can't lump EVERY person in the tea parties into one bushel. ALL of "the radical right wing" is not saying this. Just this group plus a few other small ones.
ReplyDeleteSure, it's a scary thought -- but the ideas of one (or even a few) does not exemplify the thinking of all. In the same way, the opinions of a few Alaskans (for example, those who still support Sarah) do not demonstrate what ALL Alaskans are thinking. You don't support her. I don't support her.
I'm not disagreeing with the premise of your article. Just with the illogical extension that a small group represents the whole.
I don't know of ANY 'civilized'/advanced country that does not have public schools, do you?
ReplyDeleteYou know, my child went to private schools during her elementary school time, and after that we homeschooled, but I am TOTALLY for public school! We had to choose the private route, because the local public schools were simply atrocious, and our child was somewhat precocious/advanced for her age. But not all children are, and definitely not everyone can afford to go the private route (and we only could do that, because that private Montessori school accepted me as a teacher's assistant and thus helped offset the costs).
I cannot imagine what it would do to the US if/when we privatize all our schools. We would end up back in the Dark Ages like they had in Europe. Only the super-rich could afford an education, or those that sacrificed their children to go to become nuns/monks. All the others were kept down and out, the women were kept pregnant and barefoot, the men were forced into slavery and servitude.
I am sooo glad our child has decided to leave this country and try to 'make it' in Europe...
The ultra"conservatives" are short sighted and selfish, bigoted and mean. they are like Scarah. Out only for themselves. In their minds there was nothing wrong with the public schools until they were integrated. Right away the rich started to send their kids to private schools so their precious children would not have to see or meet anyone not lily white. The less than rich started to home school or look for alternatives. This is nothing more than a new way to segregate the masses and keep them "down".
ReplyDeleteLord help us.
The fact of the Tea Party matter is that despite their flag-clinging, constitution-worshiping claims, they do NOT love America; they HATE America. What they love is the imaginary America that exists only in their minds. What they image as America never existed but nonetheless, they want to "take it back."
ReplyDeleteIt's like a mass epidemic of mental illness. Do you suppose it's due to all the chemicals in food and water these days? Geesh....
hedgewytch: "Their disconnect from reality is breathtaking. How many TP'ers are there out there who make over 50k a year?"
ReplyDeleteYes, but ONE DAY they might make more...and until that vague date in the future, they'll do the next best thing and identify with a socioeconomic demographic they have little actual hope of becoming.
Anonymous 9:51: "Really, Gryphen, you can't lump EVERY person in the tea parties into one bushel. ALL of "the radical right wing" is not saying this. Just this group plus a few other small ones."
ReplyDeleteThis is not some small radical offshoot of the Tea Party. The entire Tea Party itself is just the Republican base with a different name, and the Republicans have been quite upfront - for years - about their hatred of public school. Where have you been?
How about the people without kids, do they get some sort of rebate? People without cars pay for roads without using an voucher.
ReplyDeleteIf these assholes want "private schools only" then they should do it without government money. They can set up all the private schools they want, it obvious these "fiscal responsibility/small government bullshitters want to privatize the government to get our loot. Also they don't want any regulation.
What a mess it will be to privatize our schools. Religious nuts (see bachmann) will teach all sort of crazy crap.
Awwwhhh rich people complaining about not receiving vouchers is fucking ridiculous.
GoL
Anonymous @ 9:51, yes, that is what they are saying, and in their twisted view it makes sense. These are the same people who say they want "government out of their private lives" and in their next breath, they say that women shouldn't have abortions.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous @9:51 (#2) - I agree about lumping all teabaggers in with this group. It's even possible that not all members of this group agree with getting rid of public schools. However, it's good to know that some teabag leaders want to get rid of public schools, rather than to improve them.
ReplyDeletethe entire gop endgame is to get their hands on our entitlement monies via privatization. all of it.
ReplyDelete8 years ago the Libertopian (now a LiberTeaBagOpian) in our workgroup was ranting about "Government Schools" (to which his children go) and how evil they are. So this is nothing new from that Rand/Galt axis. They're just getting bolder about where they say it.
ReplyDeleteOf course Tea Partiers don't want to pay for schools. They're mostly old people whose kids are long finished with school.
ReplyDeleteWhat they forget is that one of the reasons for public school and truancy laws is to protect the public from juvenile deliquents. Where will all those kids go if they aren't in school and their parents are working 2 jobs to pay their bills?
ReplyDeleteI guess they will roam the streets, breaking windows and destroying property--hopefully of t-baggers like this.
all this'd probably be moot if only the mutherfukin' corporations/ultra rich people in this country would be required to pay their fukin' TAXES !!!
ReplyDeletebut in reality they're more 'n likely the koch_suckers behind this bullshit
Another reason for public schools (as well as public health) is for the protection of the United States. Many men trying to enlist during WWI could not serve because they had no basic education. They also had health so bad, teeth so bad, that they were unfit to serve.
ReplyDeleteNew York Post has a story up about Mercede posing for Playboy on the page opposite the magazine's "writearound" piece on Sarah Palin
ReplyDeleteWorlds collide!
Several years ago I heard Bill Moyers say there was not a race war going on in the US, but a class war. (150 watt lightbulb suddenly going on above head)
ReplyDeleteWhat the Rethugs want is that only the wealthy are educated and the rest are in (mortgage and credit card) debt to them.
They ARE making headway.
""Really, Gryphen, you can't lump EVERY person in the tea parties into one bushel."
ReplyDeleteWhat? Are you joking or a teabagger?
repubaggers are all the same, lunatics, crazy, racist and stupid. There isn't a redeeming quality in the bunch.
Don't lump them up. HA! GTFOH
GoL
I think they really want to go back to the way schools were before Central High and Brown v. Board, if you know what I mean.
ReplyDeleteThey disgust me.
ReplyDeleteI work in a library and am familiar with the typical Christian right wing homeschooling parent. Most have very little education; feel they were cheated in their education; only want Christ-centered education for their children; and do not believe in or have the ability to teach the scientific method. The inability to teach anything beyond simple math also is disturbing. It is so disheartening. This demographic will probably support this type of legislation. Our kids will be further behind educationally than we are presently when compared with other countries.
ReplyDeleteWhere did we ever get the idea we could claim excellence in education and yet let our kids flounder? I remember the 1960s when physics and chemistry were required classes in my high school (and Latin!). They weren't optional. And, twice a year every one in the whole school met with their counselor to make sure we each had a plan. Now the counselors are nearly gone due to budget cuts and physics and chem are only taught once a year in my kids' school.
If you're just figuring this out, you're late to the Party. The Repubs have been attacking public education for over 20 years.
ReplyDeleteRick
I very much appreciate your inclusion of the info about the Founding Fathers' attitude toward public education. I had never heard this before, and I think it's an extremely important point, considering the very selective adoration of the Founders by the Tea Party.
ReplyDeleteMy dominionist high school principal taught us that public education was unbiblical, unnecessary, unConstitutional, and a primary way the government forced its secular, humanist, evolutionist, socialist agenda on real Amur'cans. Then I got to college and discovered that some of my friends who had gone to public schools had received far superior educations to mine. They also had NONE of the emotional baggage I had from the emotional and verbal abuse, chauvinism, racism, brainwashing, and anti-intellectualism. Go figure!
As a product of a Christian school, I believe very strongly in public education. I do not have children, but if I did, they would be going to public schools.
What about all those quiverfull families? Are they going to be able to educate a passel of kids?
ReplyDeleteJust what charities will be able to afford teaching those kids.
To the people who think good teachers will teach no matter what. Wrong! My husband and I are teachers whose efforts have been noticed and acclaimed, and our daughter is training to be a teacher - but as much as we've sacrificed as a family to be able to teach and no matter how much we care - there is a point where we all will have to say "no." We're not martyrs nor are we so religious as to think poverty is noble.
No one should be asked to give up their lives for the selfish greed of others. No one, not even teachers.
The average cost of a student at a public school is $6,857 per year. The average tuition at a private school is $3,116 per year. Out of 9 national studies on voucher systems currently in use, 8 concluded that the students sent to private schools performed significantly better than their counterparts in the public schools. What is the downside?
ReplyDeleteFor the few who read here, consider this.
ReplyDeleteMy husband teaches in middle-class school district. The district has frozen pay for the last four years even though every single insurance plan has raised premiums and co-pays, even though the cost of renewing teaching certificates has risen (you have to take college hours and attend special seminars and be involved in professional development courses in order to re-certify and pay a fee on top of all that to re-certify).
Our rent, utilities, gas, groceries - everything has risen just as it has for everyone else but we get no extra pay and the teachers are teaching more kids, more hours, and more days each year --- no rise in pay, just cuts in benefits that keep rising in costs.
So we are getting screwed all the way around, but are expected to continue to provide cheerful, nurturing environments in overcrowded classrooms that have fewer supplies, outdated textbooks and less assistance in terms of aids, parental involvement.
Our healthcare and life insurance providers are raising rates because they say that teachers are under too much stress and are therefore becoming ill more often and dying younger.
The teaching force is graying. Almost a third will retire soon. Fewer kids are going into teaching because teaching majors often require five years instead of four - the last one being a practicum where the student-teacher must work for free to get "experience" while paying the college for the semesters.
All that said, private school teachers make less and do even more. At least their classes are smaller.
Most private schools do not have to meet basic standards as to teacher qualification, class size, curriculum or safety. They can reject pupils or expel students that don't enhance their profile. They don't have to meet ADA standards like the public schools.
So, just who is going to man the schools, public or private, unless this country wakes up and makes education a super priority.
The only "exceptionalism" America will be capable of is being excluded from the top tier of industrialized countries. We will not have the educated work force we need. We will become a backwater, and the slide into economic oblivion will happen faster than anyone can imagine. We will be the country where others come to hire cheap, menial labor. Do we really want that to happen?
11:54
ReplyDeleteThe average cost of a student at a public school is $6,857 per year. The average tuition at a private school is $3,116 per year. Out of 9 national studies on voucher systems currently in use, 8 concluded that the students sent to private schools performed significantly better than their counterparts in the public schools. What is the downside?
+++++++++
The key is the average cost. Public schools must accept EVERYONE, even those that require extra teacher, extra supplies, etc. due to disabilities.
Private schools can turn down these budget busting students.
Hey Gryphen, totally OT, but have you seen the story about the woman in Michigan who was ordered to remove the veggies growing in her front yard because it is supposedly against city planning code? Great story. The city is moronic. The woman is actually having a jury trial (she refused to remove the veggies and demanded her day in court). She has a blog too. It's called oakparkhatesveggies.wordpress.com. Since you occasionally post human interest stories that aren't Palin etc, I thought you might enjoy this one.
ReplyDelete11:54
ReplyDelete"Out of 9 national studies on voucher systems currently in use, 8 concluded that the students sent to private schools performed significantly better than their counterparts in the public schools. What is the downside?"
The private schools get to PICK their students, so they should do much, much better. The public schools have to test everyone - that means those children who wouldn't test well no matter who taught them (I guess that's the nicest way to say it).
I guess if you got to pick the 10 brightest kids out of 1000 to test vs. a randam 10 kids in a normal population, your pick would score better too.
I moved to Europe seven years ago and never looked back. The only thing I miss is Thanksgiving. Not a bad trade-off.
ReplyDeleteThe über-ignorance among these mouth breathers is almost heart-stopping.
ReplyDeleteThey're "The Idiocracy" as a microcosm of our present society.
They want to privatize the school system for an additional component of their 'theology': so they can demonstrate that 'it's all your fault if you are poor'. First, deny education to poor people. Then blame the poor because they can't get jobs, can't get good-paying jobs, and because they are/remain poor. That way the baggers can feel superior, which is an essential component of their theology.
ReplyDeleteanon 11:54, please cite your sources. Providing specific numbers without sources doesn't give you credibility. I notice you state it costs x number of dollars for public school and then you state it costs x number of dollars for TUITION at private schools. What are the other costs? Tuition is ONE cost at a private school. Also, given that our public schools have been butchered, it is no surprise if better funded schools perform better. Did they do a study matching private schools with magnet schools or charter schools? The schools that have been trying to work within the public system to create excellence? Or was it one of those studies that compared top private schools with inner city schools? See why we need your references? I take NOBODY'S word for it. Give me the references and let me see where your numbers came from. And of course you forget an important point. The right wingers want to defund education and leave it up to individuals. So those people who can afford the "cheaper" private school can go. Those who can't afford it can work at the local McDonalds. What's the downside?
ReplyDeleteAlso, too: having a large, under-educated and unskilled work-force is fabulous for China. And selling out to China is really what these people's puppet-masters are totally into. Who are the 2 most powerful republican men in the entire United States? Rupert Murdoch and Mitch McConnell. Who are Rupert Murdoch and Mitch McConnell married to? Ruthless Chinese-born women with connections to the very top-levels of the Chinese Communist government. McConnell's father-in-law was a school roommate and life-long friend of Jiang Zemin, former President of the People's Republic of China. http://www.counterpunch.org/flanders04012004.html; http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=7823. Better check it out, before it's too late for all of us.
ReplyDeleteMurdoch thinks he can get away with phone-hacking, but who are the world's champion phone-hackers (including into the Pentagon and American businesses)? The Chinese. Murdoch and McConnell would have no clue about what their wives were saying when they are on the phone to their 'dads'; they would certainly have no clue if their own phones were hacked by China. (You really think they're NOT hacked???)
Hmmmmm.....seems like slave-owners made arguements that slaves didn't need to be educated because.... blah blah blah...
ReplyDeleteIt was really to keep them from uprising.
repeat....
no education = mp worker uprising
They want to get rid of public schools because of all those pesky rules the Administration, the school board and the teachers have to abide by, like teaching real science and history and not forcing prayer minutes. That you can't discriminate against other non-Christian religions, people of color and sexual orientation.
ReplyDeleteI'd say fine, let them all go to private Christian schools or homeschool, but then we've got a nation of emotionally and intellectually stunted assholes much like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann running around as 'adults' mucking up our public discourse.
hedgewytch @ 9:23 a.m.
ReplyDeleteI've always felt that I'd rather be indebted to faceless, red tape bureaucrats than a Christian charity. No thanks. Their services are discriminatory or have too many strings-attached, namely forcing you to worship false idols.
They'll withhold care, medical services, food an clothing if you don't concede your individual freedoms to their rigid morality.
The majority of school funding comes from local taxes. In my state it's primarily paid by property taxes. How is this keeping the Federal Government out of the States' business? It's not! It's the Feds interfering with State business!
ReplyDeleteI'm telling you these people are nuts (& so are many of the Republicans). Remember that old adage "Be careful what you wish for."
ReplyDeleteMy idiot governor (OH) wanted to privatize our turnpike and it didn't happen. Apparently IN did privatize theirs and boy are they in trouble. They can charge whatever they want now.
Why do these people (who do seem to be from a lower economic standing) think for one minute they are going to get better schools? Only the upper white class will be able to afford it. And if they think charities are going to help them out they are nuts. No one will be able to afford to give to charities because we will be paying so much for school.
Is there anyone here who thinks for one minute that they would be spending less if we privatized everything? The Cleveland Police dept. had their 401K's in Enron and guess what happened to them? We are all on this Earth together and the only way we can have better things is if we pull our money together.
The funniest thing about these people is they would be the ones who would NOT contribute to the roads but complain because they are full of pot holes. Mentally ill people & handicapped people will be on their own.
I hate to say it but if my kids want to go to Europe or live somewhere else than the US I am not going to have a problem with it. I am convinced people here have NO idea what this country would be like without our government. How did people get so gd dumb?
"These people are willing to completely dismantle the American public school system, which has leveled the playing field to allow those who come from humble beginnings to rise to the top through hard work and access to a good education, in exchange for ONLY providing an adequate education for those that can afford it [at the expense of all tax payers, who supply the vouchers, ncluding mouchers paid for by parents who cannot afford to educate their children.]
ReplyDeleteThat last part is really important so is the next part.
Those children who are too poor to afford any education are the new slave class. Poll taxes can disenfranchise them and laws can be changed to make it illegal to be poor, and force people into servitude to stay out of prisons, which are already instituting unpaid chain gangs, ie. slavery.
Is it time to move to Europe yet?
ReplyDeleteWhat will happen is with no kids in schools and ppl trying to make a living they will take those children away no supervision. The work camps will appear -can't have any idle kids so if not in school they need to work. Work slaves, child ,sex trade all coming to us viva those rich and tbaggers. Don't forget they want ever pregnancy to come to term so they will have lots of little bodies and parents having trouble feeding them clothing and such and how how possibly will parents be able to educate all those kids. No jobs ,not saftey nets , no ss ,no medicare, no nothing, no education, they have us just where they want us. These are suposed to be christians but I think they are just in christian clothing they are the devil.
ReplyDeleteLet's just consider for a moment what would happen if these malcontent Tea Party people (read: Republican base) had their way and government was abolished, public schools were abolished, etc. Just what do you think they would turn their mean and vengeful sights on next? We are talking about people who don't feel alive unless they have a group to hate and resent.
ReplyDeleteAnon 11:54 am: "The average cost of a student at a public school is $6,857 per year. The average tuition at a private school is $3,116 per year."
ReplyDeleteOh look, a homesKKKooler just arrived. You can always tell by how delusionally wrong they are on the numbers.
Anon 11:54: "The average cost of a student at a public school is $6,857 per year. The average tuition at a private school is $3,116 per year."
ReplyDeleteI think you forgot to add a one or a two before the three in your private school figure. No private school charges anything that cheap except maybe some weird tea party school held at someone's home.
You're just learning that now? Not only do they want to get rid of public schools, they want to privatize everything government currently does. Everything! I'll repeat what I said yesterday on the public school post: a well-rounded education on Planet Koch will be reserved for members of the Lucky Sperm Club (kids of the very rich). They, in turn, will oversee the rest of the Great Unwashed, whose kids will be forced into subpar "private" schools (or perhaps schooled for an hour a day at their factory jobs, if they're lucky). And please jesse, no cocksucking with your friends in a tent when the children are around. It's embarrassing for them. Of course, all their classes will have a heavy emphasis on Dominionist indoctrination, thanks to the "charities" who will run them. Only we can stop this madness with our voices and votes. There's no stopping the right as they won't give up until they have destroyed the country.
ReplyDelete11:54 anon tells us "The average tuition at a private school is $3,116 per year."
ReplyDeleteCan you people ever back up your case without resorting to lies? According to a site that ADVOCATES PRIVATE SCHOOLS, the average cost for private school tuition at a non-sectarian school is $17,316!
The average is lower if you add in Catholic and other religious schools, but even then it's more than twice the bogus number you posted.
http://www.capenet.org/facts.html
Anon 9:28am I think you have the central core of it. I think this is really about white males losing their majority. They are trying desperately to hang onto power. So we'll teach the women that their God given role is barefoot, pregnant, and stupid. Then we'll see to it that those other unworthies don't get a chance. I suspect that is what Dominionism is really all about. Needless to say, we must fight it everyway we can.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry my education is so limited.
ReplyDeleteCan someone name me a major democratic power in the world that has no public education system but only private schools?
Any major power?
Any first world country?
Anon 11:54 your statistics are very, very outdated. Also, the studies are showing that most public schools' students are outperforming most private school students. There are indeed some outstanding private schools, but they are very expensive, and few. The local, protestant church related schools are generally poor.
ReplyDelete"I moved to Europe seven years ago and never looked back. The only thing I miss is Thanksgiving. Not a bad trade-off."
ReplyDeleteRemember when Argentina crashed, and those people left for Italy? And they said it would never happen. If it gets worse in this country you might see people move to Canada. It's clean there, people are nice, there is schooling and healthcare, and no right wing headlock on the country.
Regarding immigration to Canada, a Canadian attorney friend of mine told me several Bush years ago that Canada has never had so many applications from U.S. citizens who want to immigrate as they were currently seeing...in record numbers and showing no signs of slowing down.
ReplyDeleteAnon 11:54: Around me one private school is 8,000/yr, another is 18,000 and yet another is $20,000. These are day schools, not boarding. And I am in SC.
ReplyDelete9:51, I'm in Texas and even among your normal, garden variety right wingers (non tea.party types), the idea that the Gov should get out of education is very popular.
ReplyDeleteThere's a reason public schools were created: they were needed.
ReplyDeleteIf these fools are so into privatizing everything, when are their churches going to get off the public dole and start paying their fair share of all taxes?
11:54, first, you need to provide links. Second, I live in pretty average city in Texas, but private school round here is nowhere near $3,000. Try $12,000 to $18,000 for most. I know of only one that runs about $6,000.
ReplyDelete