I’m excited to be one of the new community columnists for the Empire-Tribune. I love to write, and there is certainly plenty to write about these days. I’ve been asked to write about “Mature Living,” but I’m not sure what that means. I know I’m getting older, but I sometimes question my maturity. So, I will write about what I usually write about … education.
By the way, I also write a blog on education at www.yourhometownvoice.com/blogs. Please feel free to drop in and voice your opinion. In my blog, I have practically been called a Liberal Socialist (or Socialist Liberal) for speaking out in defense of public education. I am neither a socialist nor a liberal. I am a dyed-in-the-wool capitalist and my politics are really quite moderate. I favor the smallest possible government and I am deeply concerned about our huge debt. But I also believe that the federal, state, and local governments have a constitutional, and sometimes moral (”What you do unto the least of my brethren, you do unto me.”), obligation to provide certain essential services to the people for “the good of the people.” If that makes me a Liberal Socialists (or Socialist Liberal), then so be it.
I imagine government as a stone arch holding up society. The stones in the arch represent the essential services of government. Public education is the keystone. A free public education is the centerpiece of any modern society. Without an educated populace, the rich and powerful abuse their wealth and power, the arch crumbles and society collapses. “I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective to abuses of power.”–Thomas Jefferson
Our esteemed politicians, at the bidding of some very powerful people, have been chipping away at the keystone of education for decades. They have drastically reduced school funding; the 82nd Texas Legislature cut nearly $5.5 billion from public education. They have mounted concerted smear campaigns against educators and, at the same time they have raised the bar on standardized tests to impossibly high levels. (By the year 2014, 100% of students must pass state mandated tests for English and math.) Their hope is that public schools will fail. Their goal is privatization. As an educator, I follow the writings of Diane Ravitch. Dr. Ravitch is an educational historian, author, and former Assistant Secretary of Education under George Bush. She recently wrote that we face a "full-fledged, well-funded effort to replace public schools with private management and…a full-throated effort to hold public school teachers accountable for the ills of society.” Additionally she wrote, “What is happening now has no precedent in the past. For the first time in our history, there is a concerted attempt, led by powerful people, to undermine the very idea of public schooling and to de-professionalize [teachers]”.
These powerful people have been dubbed the “billionaire’s boys club.” I like to call them the “über wealthy.” It would be easy to say that they are motivated by greed, but I think they are doing this just because they can. The über wealthy are worse than greedy, they are heartless, calculating and entitled. Crushing public education evokes no more emotion in them than crushing a beetle. The fact that our children will lose a chance at a decent education and chance at a bright future is a matter of great indifference to them.Privatization of government services is the end game, but privatizing education is not the end of the game. The über wealthy have already started chipping away at other stones in the arch of government. These include attempts at privatizing entitlements such as Social Security, Medicaire, Medicaid, and Teacher Retirement. (Do you trust Wall Street to manage these funds? I don’t.) Prisons are already being privatized. The US military is heavily privatized; the Department of Defense doles out approximately $300 billion a year to private contractors. (Do you want your security in the hands of Blackwater? I don’t.) Next up are the police departments, fire departments, and so on. I can envision the day when I dial 911 and, instead of hearing “What is your emergency?” I hear “What is your credit card number?”
Eventually, we will have a wholly corporate owned government. This is the opposite of socialism and it is certainly not capitalism, but there is a word for it: corporatism. Corporatism is defined as corporate control of government. Before becoming a teacher, I spent over 20 years in the corporate world. The only things I trust less than big government are big corporations. I do not want to see them in control of our United States.Fortunately, we can still stop this march towards corporatization of the country, but we must draw a line in the sand, stand and fight. There are many battles to be fought, but I have chosen the keystone of education as my battleground. If we can save this keystone, then we can save the others. The arch will stand and our society will thrive. You can join the fight by casting your next votes for pro-education candidates. In the meantime, talk to a neighbor, write a friend, make a phone call, start a blog or add your comments to a blog. There is much that can be done.
My parents’ generation has been called the greatest generation. They accomplished great things and left this country in our hands. I am a member of the baby boom generation. Our legacy will depend on the condition we leave the country for our children. We can, and must, remove the burden of debt from their backs. We can cut spending and reduce the size of government. We can do this and still insure, through education, that our children are the best and brightest generation yet.