Public education is at risk in several states, where extremists want to tear it up and replace it with privatization.
One of the states where the privatizers are in charge is Wiscondin, where Governor Scott Walker hopes to demolish public education.
To get a sense of what is happening in Wisconsin, read this article. Written by a teacher, it challenges syndicated columnist George Will for joining the wrecking crew and spreading false tales about the public schools, spread by unreliable sources.
This tide of hostility directed at a democratic institution is bizarre. It is not conservative to destroy one of the pillars of our free society.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
These Demolishers Of Public Education are conservatives only in the sense of trying to return the order of things to the Ancien Régime.
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We can certainly use as much help as we can get in fighting fire with facts. We need voices, and lots of them, pointing out the flawed approach of Walker and his ilk. We need pushback, strong and loud and hard.
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This plan is running into significant opposition in the Wisconsin Senate. Hopefully, the moderate Republican Senators who oppose Walker’s voucherization of Wisconsin, will prevail.
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In Ohio, we rallied last year to fight Senate Bill 5, that was designed to eliminate collective bargaining among other things. With over million signatures, it went on the ballot and was overturned. This year the legislature is trying to make it more difficult to get the signatures in the future. Our “governor” $seems cut from the same cloth as Wisconsin’s.
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This line, in the beginning of the article says it all “Wisconsinites have become accustomed to outsiders trying to raze our public school system proudly built by generations of Wisconsin taxpayers”
Well if the schools are taken over by private organizations then it should no longer be taken out of our tax dollars. And since quite a bit of our tax dollar goes to schools, I can only imagine how much my taxes will go down. Schools would them be private. We shouldn’t have to pay for it any more with our taxes, like groceries. We should be able to save our own money and send our own kids where we want to. We would be customers and we can take our money and spend it where we want. There would no longer be a need for a middle man (ie government/tax collector).
Sure there’s the problem of people who can’t afford it, people who will find better uses for their money (though I, personally, can’t imagine what) and companies who think the government should still be the one collecting the money and giving it straight to them…but they asked to make education private, I say let’s give it to them (and stop paying taxes). (^‿◕)
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No.
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I actually think the loony flyers and nutty claims actually work in the favor of supporters of public ed. The wacko flyers and kooky religious analogies discredit their side. (If anyone is close to the moneychangers in the temple it would be the corporatizers) George Will is a blowhard. The districts that are the most in danger are poor and minority. If they are not part of the Repub. base then they go on the attack. They don’t want to attack districts with large Repub. base out of fear their base will get angry.
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In large part it depends on how one defines the term “public education”.
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And the emperor being naked depends on how you define “naked”.
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True, though naked is a less complicated concept. Perhaps a discussion of what “public education” is and what it is not.
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No fact is so simple that some won’t deny it.
The rest of us know butt ugly when we see it.
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Perhaps a discussion of what constitutes “public education” would be worthwhile.
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Been There, Done That.
Had that discussion over and over and over again all through my primary, secondary, and tertiary education. Sorry you missed out on all that, if that is really the problem, or sorry that you think pretending to be stupid is a valid debating tactic. But I have certainly gotten my fill of that game from astro-turfers over the last few years.
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I am not pretending to be stupid. It seems to me that education that is available to all and paid for by the general population could easily be seen as ” public education”. That definition, however, would include charter schools at a minimum and perhaps vouchers as well, so I doubt that is the definition you would be comfortable with. How would modify it?
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Community schools under the control of an elected local school board with oversight (not unfunded mandates and top down control) from the SEA (state education authority) so as to maintain a minimum level of services through equalizing funding for communities. Feds need to butt out!
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I assume when you say the Feds need to “but out”, you do not mean to suggest federal courts need to “but out” or the Education for All Handicapped Children Act be repealed. Is that correct?
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Let me guess, George Will who has probably zero or little experience with any public school is writing as if he’s an expert.
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As a parent I am thrilled that the charter authorizer bill did not pass the senate in my home state.
http://www.nashvillescene.com/pitw/archives/2013/04/16/harwells-charter-school-bill-on-life-support-in-senate#more
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It’s exciting to witness a grassroots movement unfold isn’t it????
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To some an unasked question and unknown response, is why has Scott Walker kept his children in the same public school system that his legislative proposals are now attacking.
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I write just a bit about this in the post link below.
Mr. Walker’s boys are in one of the most affluent school districts in all of Wisconsin. His boys are largely shielded from the student poverty crippling many other districts in Wisconsin. His kids district can handle the funding blows with piles of resources in Waukesha, where they live.
As we know, kids with mega-out-of-school resources and adequate in-school resources often excel. Walker’s plans hurt the neediest communities in Wisconsin. Walker’s kids education go largely untouched, while he scores points with the Tea Party for weakening teachers unions and diverting funds from education to tax relief.
http://oneteachersperspective.blogspot.com/2013/02/staff-swap-revealing-school-experiment.html
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I want to challenge Cee Mor’s reasoning.
On average, a prisoner in the state or federal system costs taxpayers around $25,000 to $30,000 a year. There is a much higher percentage of school failures in the prison system than in the general population. If we do not pay the price of educating people at the front end of the system (schools), we pay the price at the back end (prisons).
We believe, I think, that in this country all of us need to be concerned for the welfare of the rest of us. That includes those who are handicapped by poverty. But if we are not motivated by care for our neighbors, at least we should be motivated by the economic fact that it costs more per capita to run prisons than it does to run schools.
Cee Mor also cannot imagine what reasonable people would spend their money on instead of schools, with the inference that anyone who is not willing to pay a fair market price for private education is using his or her money foolishly. I would start with food and housing as two things that a reasonable person might rank higher than education.
Franciscan Joe
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