Have Public Schools become an "Island of Socialism in a Sea of Capitalism"?
Public schools are a gift and blessing that this nation has provided for over 150 years, and countless millions have been directly, positively, influenced as such. Teachers, principals, administrators, and parent-run school boards do their best to provide the best possible curriculum, facilities, and support for local children to have a chance at learning and experiencing lessons (scholastic and “life”) that will hopefully equip them with the necessary tools for a successful career and life.
I am a product of public schools (but don’t it against them). The teachers and coaches I had along the way played a large part in my development as a student, an athlete, and most importantly, a well-balanced member of society. I learned how to interact with different personalities, religions, and races.
However, as is the case with almost anything the government tries to run, the current state of education in America is at all-time low. We’ve dropped to the bottom of the barrel in crucial categories such as science and math. Increased spending has had a negligible effect in stemming the tide of illiterate and ill-prepared high school students. Something is not working. I think a big part of this very real problem is the monopoly of power the Left has in our educational systems (over 80% of public school teachers voted for John Kerry in 2004).
Horace Mann, known as the “father of public education”, was the first Secretary of Education in Massachusetts. Starting in 1837 Mann traveled New England for more than a decade making the case for free, government-sponsored education for all. His main point of contention was that because of how important education was to every child, it was the government’s “duty” to provide it. Mann believed that schools should remain secular, but welcome students of all faiths and ethnic backgrounds, and encourage the vibrant religious culture that had become an American hallmark. He also thought that free schooling would allow poorer families to overcome the “handicap of their position” in society. Overall, very reasonable and noble goals.
In Milton Friedman’s classic, Free to Choose, the greatest economist of the last century gives more historical insight into the origins of public education. He cites historical sources to show that the crusade for free schooling was not led by concerned parents, but by bureaucrats, and “well-intentioned” intellectuals, administrators, and governmental officials. The truth was that most parents already sent their kids to private schools (with the money they soon would be paying to the government for schools they would have little control over), and were generally content with the quality of it.
Friedman says that the thinking of these pioneers in free education was that if the government, not parents (who had for the previous century been responsible for either home-schooling or paying for private education), were running things; there would be greater job security (unions), more control over curriculum, and better salaries. However, that socialist line of thinking would never “sell” to a capitalistic society; so sugar-coated mantras of “civic duty” and “societal responsibility to our youth” were used to win public support. After all, who wants to be the on the opposing side to free school for little Jamie and Johnny?
Let me stop here to happily and emphatically interject my own personal deepest respect for teachers. I have many friends who have chosen that as their profession. No matter what one might say about their desire for three months (or more) off each year in vacation time, or the seductiveness of a tenured position and a rising pay scale, it is unimaginable that anyone enters the field of public education without wanting to positively impact kids’ lives. (This column is about the frustration many feel toward the administrators, school boards, and unnecessary federal involvement.)
But, the time has now come for concerned parents and voting citizens to re-assess what is really going on in their local school districts. In the 19th century, Americans turned a large percentage of control over in their schools to Uncle Sam and un-elected educational officials. Hoping to get a better overall “product” and enable low-income families to educate their children, we put our faith in the generally non-existent ability for arbitrary “professional educators” to leave their own personal biases, opinions, and worldviews out of the classroom and simply prepare kids for life after high school and college. We’ve been shipwrecked on an island of socialism (the public school system) in a sea of capitalism.
Originally, the tradeoff for parents to relinquish the direct power over where their children went and what they were taught was that the federal government promised to keep the decision-making control in the hands of local, city, and state authorities. District and county elections were to provide a checks-and-balance system for parents to have at least the semblance of input into what was taught and how their tax money was spent. But, post Great Depression and FDR’s “New Deal” expansionary programs, as could be expected (and was predicted by FDR himself); the federal government systematically seized more and more control (i.e. tax money) of the education system in America.
At that time in our nation’s history, the American people had lost a lot of faith in the virtues of capitalism and the free market, and this sentiment was the bedrock upon which modern liberalism has built their rickety “house upon the sand” in educational sectors (and basically anything else they touch). Continuing on into the days of Cultural Revolution and “Great Society” ideals that embodied the 1960’s, previously non-existent roles of public schools were introduced. Far from the original tasks of engaging students in the three R’s, and promoting commonly held American values, we’ve entered into a world where political indoctrination, religious discrimination, and ultra-tolerance of any and all behavior or lifestyle dominate classroom time and lesson plans.
Now we have schools where fourth graders cannot even use the colors green or red around Christmas time so as to not offend non-Christians (forget the fact that it is a federally recognized, national holiday). We have high school English teachers showing propaganda films like the anti-capitalistic “The Corporations” and the conservative news-bashing “Out-Foxed” (those must have been in the sections right after Thoreau and Emerson). “Mixers” solely for gay students can be seen on school calendars from sea to flamboyantly shining sea.
Things have reached a boiling point for many concerned parents around the country. Enrollment in private schools, and home-schooling, are both at all-time highs. More Moderate and Conservative candidates are running for positions on school boards to help reign in the secular-progressive agenda that has run rampant for far too long. Parents are beginning to resent the blatant attempt to mold young minds in the fashion decided upon by previously unaccountable officials and administrators.
In my own district (#214 in the Chicago-land suburbs) there have been recent, heated town hall meetings and inflammatory editorials in local newspapers between the entrenched liberal positions of the overwhelmingly lopsided, left-leaning, school board, who are content with the status quo; and the new conservative candidates who wish to have their voices heard and new policies adopted.
Most have characterized this as some sort of religious coup or hijacking of the schools by religious zealots who want to suppress free speech and force teachers to read the Ten Commandments before each lesson. The concerted effort of the local Left has been to portray the proponents of needed change as crazy, extreme, and out of touch with “mainstream” constituents. The real issues (over-budget spending, declining graduation rates, and blatantly inappropriate material being taught in classes) are all but ignored; and the focus (and sole strategy) of sympathetic journalists and liberal city/county officials are vicious ad homenin (personal) attacks on the conservative candidates running for school board.
The reality is that in District 214 we are seeing Democracy in action. Just because many parents have neglected to get directly involved in the decision-making processes (that directly affect their child’s education), and Left-leaning candidates have found it easy to get elected up until now (because the public has been misinformed), the other members of the school board and their allies are now trying to “project” their own attempts at indoctrination on the benign intentions of truly dissatisfied parents who merely want things “cleaned up” in their tax-paid school systems.
This problem and conflict is not unique to my area. Debates over what should be taught, how it should be taught, how best funds should be allocated, etc., are raging all across the nation. The established educational proponents are up in arms to defend the current powers they possess, and privileges they enjoy. It is easier for most citizens to retain their collectivist outlook and assume everyone in the education system has their child’s best intentions in mind (and actually respect their own family’s values). The best way to ensure that a fairer representation exists in the decision-making processes for school policies and curriculum is to welcome debate and dialogue from those most directly affected: students and their tax-paying parents.
In District #214 we are vastly over-budget and have lower graduation rates then neighboring areas. Many parents have legitimate concerns over what books are being used in classes and have been asking tough questions (no one wants to burn or even singe any literature). There are seven total board members, and currently there is a single, lone voice that isn’t a lock-step liberal. Two new candidates have decided to run on a conservative platform of reform and accountability, and the reaction from the local press, administrators, and current board members would make one think that former followers of the Hale-Bopp Comet cult had promised to bring purple shrouds and cyanide-laced kool-aid to our schools.
Why would we see such a backlash from these groups if they were so confident that their own views were actually the mainstream, and thus incumbency would be a “sure thing” in the upcoming election? What makes so many of us so afraid to challenge entrenched bureaucracies? Let both sides get their views out (that means newspapers actually have to print what Christian Conservatives say too), and the public will choose. Socialism is where the power of the masses are in the hands of a few, largely unaccountable politically-minded officials who, like all humans, thrive on self-interest and personal security.
Sound familiar?
Public schools are a gift and blessing that this nation has provided for over 150 years, and countless millions have been directly, positively, influenced as such. Teachers, principals, administrators, and parent-run school boards do their best to provide the best possible curriculum, facilities, and support for local children to have a chance at learning and experiencing lessons (scholastic and “life”) that will hopefully equip them with the necessary tools for a successful career and life.
I am a product of public schools (but don’t it against them). The teachers and coaches I had along the way played a large part in my development as a student, an athlete, and most importantly, a well-balanced member of society. I learned how to interact with different personalities, religions, and races.
However, as is the case with almost anything the government tries to run, the current state of education in America is at all-time low. We’ve dropped to the bottom of the barrel in crucial categories such as science and math. Increased spending has had a negligible effect in stemming the tide of illiterate and ill-prepared high school students. Something is not working. I think a big part of this very real problem is the monopoly of power the Left has in our educational systems (over 80% of public school teachers voted for John Kerry in 2004).
Horace Mann, known as the “father of public education”, was the first Secretary of Education in Massachusetts. Starting in 1837 Mann traveled New England for more than a decade making the case for free, government-sponsored education for all. His main point of contention was that because of how important education was to every child, it was the government’s “duty” to provide it. Mann believed that schools should remain secular, but welcome students of all faiths and ethnic backgrounds, and encourage the vibrant religious culture that had become an American hallmark. He also thought that free schooling would allow poorer families to overcome the “handicap of their position” in society. Overall, very reasonable and noble goals.
In Milton Friedman’s classic, Free to Choose, the greatest economist of the last century gives more historical insight into the origins of public education. He cites historical sources to show that the crusade for free schooling was not led by concerned parents, but by bureaucrats, and “well-intentioned” intellectuals, administrators, and governmental officials. The truth was that most parents already sent their kids to private schools (with the money they soon would be paying to the government for schools they would have little control over), and were generally content with the quality of it.
Friedman says that the thinking of these pioneers in free education was that if the government, not parents (who had for the previous century been responsible for either home-schooling or paying for private education), were running things; there would be greater job security (unions), more control over curriculum, and better salaries. However, that socialist line of thinking would never “sell” to a capitalistic society; so sugar-coated mantras of “civic duty” and “societal responsibility to our youth” were used to win public support. After all, who wants to be the on the opposing side to free school for little Jamie and Johnny?
Let me stop here to happily and emphatically interject my own personal deepest respect for teachers. I have many friends who have chosen that as their profession. No matter what one might say about their desire for three months (or more) off each year in vacation time, or the seductiveness of a tenured position and a rising pay scale, it is unimaginable that anyone enters the field of public education without wanting to positively impact kids’ lives. (This column is about the frustration many feel toward the administrators, school boards, and unnecessary federal involvement.)
But, the time has now come for concerned parents and voting citizens to re-assess what is really going on in their local school districts. In the 19th century, Americans turned a large percentage of control over in their schools to Uncle Sam and un-elected educational officials. Hoping to get a better overall “product” and enable low-income families to educate their children, we put our faith in the generally non-existent ability for arbitrary “professional educators” to leave their own personal biases, opinions, and worldviews out of the classroom and simply prepare kids for life after high school and college. We’ve been shipwrecked on an island of socialism (the public school system) in a sea of capitalism.
Originally, the tradeoff for parents to relinquish the direct power over where their children went and what they were taught was that the federal government promised to keep the decision-making control in the hands of local, city, and state authorities. District and county elections were to provide a checks-and-balance system for parents to have at least the semblance of input into what was taught and how their tax money was spent. But, post Great Depression and FDR’s “New Deal” expansionary programs, as could be expected (and was predicted by FDR himself); the federal government systematically seized more and more control (i.e. tax money) of the education system in America.
At that time in our nation’s history, the American people had lost a lot of faith in the virtues of capitalism and the free market, and this sentiment was the bedrock upon which modern liberalism has built their rickety “house upon the sand” in educational sectors (and basically anything else they touch). Continuing on into the days of Cultural Revolution and “Great Society” ideals that embodied the 1960’s, previously non-existent roles of public schools were introduced. Far from the original tasks of engaging students in the three R’s, and promoting commonly held American values, we’ve entered into a world where political indoctrination, religious discrimination, and ultra-tolerance of any and all behavior or lifestyle dominate classroom time and lesson plans.
Now we have schools where fourth graders cannot even use the colors green or red around Christmas time so as to not offend non-Christians (forget the fact that it is a federally recognized, national holiday). We have high school English teachers showing propaganda films like the anti-capitalistic “The Corporations” and the conservative news-bashing “Out-Foxed” (those must have been in the sections right after Thoreau and Emerson). “Mixers” solely for gay students can be seen on school calendars from sea to flamboyantly shining sea.
Things have reached a boiling point for many concerned parents around the country. Enrollment in private schools, and home-schooling, are both at all-time highs. More Moderate and Conservative candidates are running for positions on school boards to help reign in the secular-progressive agenda that has run rampant for far too long. Parents are beginning to resent the blatant attempt to mold young minds in the fashion decided upon by previously unaccountable officials and administrators.
In my own district (#214 in the Chicago-land suburbs) there have been recent, heated town hall meetings and inflammatory editorials in local newspapers between the entrenched liberal positions of the overwhelmingly lopsided, left-leaning, school board, who are content with the status quo; and the new conservative candidates who wish to have their voices heard and new policies adopted.Most have characterized this as some sort of religious coup or hijacking of the schools by religious zealots who want to suppress free speech and force teachers to read the Ten Commandments before each lesson. The concerted effort of the local Left has been to portray the proponents of needed change as crazy, extreme, and out of touch with “mainstream” constituents. The real issues (over-budget spending, declining graduation rates, and blatantly inappropriate material being taught in classes) are all but ignored; and the focus (and sole strategy) of sympathetic journalists and liberal city/county officials are vicious ad homenin (personal) attacks on the conservative candidates running for school board.
The reality is that in District 214 we are seeing Democracy in action. Just because many parents have neglected to get directly involved in the decision-making processes (that directly affect their child’s education), and Left-leaning candidates have found it easy to get elected up until now (because the public has been misinformed), the other members of the school board and their allies are now trying to “project” their own attempts at indoctrination on the benign intentions of truly dissatisfied parents who merely want things “cleaned up” in their tax-paid school systems.
This problem and conflict is not unique to my area. Debates over what should be taught, how it should be taught, how best funds should be allocated, etc., are raging all across the nation. The established educational proponents are up in arms to defend the current powers they possess, and privileges they enjoy. It is easier for most citizens to retain their collectivist outlook and assume everyone in the education system has their child’s best intentions in mind (and actually respect their own family’s values). The best way to ensure that a fairer representation exists in the decision-making processes for school policies and curriculum is to welcome debate and dialogue from those most directly affected: students and their tax-paying parents.
In District #214 we are vastly over-budget and have lower graduation rates then neighboring areas. Many parents have legitimate concerns over what books are being used in classes and have been asking tough questions (no one wants to burn or even singe any literature). There are seven total board members, and currently there is a single, lone voice that isn’t a lock-step liberal. Two new candidates have decided to run on a conservative platform of reform and accountability, and the reaction from the local press, administrators, and current board members would make one think that former followers of the Hale-Bopp Comet cult had promised to bring purple shrouds and cyanide-laced kool-aid to our schools.
Why would we see such a backlash from these groups if they were so confident that their own views were actually the mainstream, and thus incumbency would be a “sure thing” in the upcoming election? What makes so many of us so afraid to challenge entrenched bureaucracies? Let both sides get their views out (that means newspapers actually have to print what Christian Conservatives say too), and the public will choose. Socialism is where the power of the masses are in the hands of a few, largely unaccountable politically-minded officials who, like all humans, thrive on self-interest and personal security.
Sound familiar?
(PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE browse the links at the site listed below!!!)
http://www.heritage.org/research/education/
http://www.heritage.org/research/education/
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