Russ Walsh has written an important post, which is a call to arms for all of us who care about public education and don’t want it to be turned into a free-market consumer good.
Last week on his show, Real Time, Bill Maher introduced the Yale professor and author, Timothy Snyder, whose new book is entitled, On Tyranny. The book outlines 20 lessons we can learn from the rise of fascism and communism in the 20th century to make sure the same does not happen to us in the 21st century. Lesson #2 caught my ear immediately: Defend Institutions. Snyder says
It is institutions that help us to preserve decency. They need our help as well. Do not speak of “our institutions” unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions do not protect themselves. They fall one after the other unless each is defended from the beginning. So choose an institution you care about – a court, a newspaper, a law, a labor union – and take its side.
OK, Professor Snyder, I choose public education as my institution to defend.
One way we can be sure that Trump and his minions are coming after our institutions is to see who the Tweeter-in-chief has chosen to head up various government departments. Almost to a person (Pruitt, Perry, Price), people who are opposed to the very institutions they are leading have been put in charge. If public education is to survive, we are going to have to fight for it. We cannot sit back and wait for this current nightmare to pass because by the time we wake up, it may be too late. It should be clear to all of us that the institution of public education is under a very real threat from the authoritarian Trump administration and its anti-public schools Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos.
The appointment of DeVos was the clearest indication from the new Trump administration that public education would be under siege. Next came the Trump budget proposal that, as Jeff Bryant reports here, strips money from after-school programs for poor children, reduces the overall budget of the department by 13%, but still finds billions of dollars for various school choice schemes.
Russ says:
Be informed.
Speak up.
Get involved.
Our institutions are under assault. One of the most vulnerable of these institutions is public education. If we do not fight for it, we will lose it. If we do fight for it, perhaps we can turn the conversation about schools around and focus on what is really causing our educational problems – income inequity, prejudice, and segregation.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
When Russ talks education, I listen!
I’m all for resisting Trump and De Vos. The unfortunate complication is that the Democrats were also busy destroying public education when they were in power, have not rejected their failed policies, and have even co-opted the term “resistance.”
Let’s face it, having to choose between the firing squad of Barack Obama’s RttP and charter love, or the gallows of Betsey De Vos’ VoucherWorld (with a big side order of charter love), is not a happy prospect.
By all means, let’s do everythig we can to make Trump/De Vos pay a price for attacking public education, but we must not stop there: Democrats who support so-called reform (like the sickening Cory Booker) need to be told that they, too, will be targeted.
Michael,
You know that this blog has been relentless in critiquing Dems like Obama, Duncan, Booker, Cuomo, Malloy, etc for their support for privatization and for their failure to support veteran teachers.
But bad as the DINOs are, the Trump team is far worse. This is not a choice of lesser evils. One is evil, the other is horrible.
So long as the Democrats know that people will always run to them because the Republicans are worse, nothing will ever change.
Dienne,
Do you have a better plan?
Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better. Things will change only when either (a) the Democrats realize that they have to serve the people (otherwise, what’s the point in voting for them – might as well vote for people who are honest about screwing you over) or (b) a new party arises to take their place. It will be a long a painful process for either of those things to happen, but the alternative is a long, slow, and even more painful rot that will result in much wider-spread, entrenched destruction.
I don’t anything to get worse. Trump is the pits. Anything worse would be a catastrophe. Like three Supreme Court appointments for Trump. There is not going to be a third party.
You can deny it all you want, Diane, but things were getting worse before Trump, and substantially so. And they would have continued getting worse under Hillary. That’s what neoliberalism does. Sure, they would have gotten worse more slowly, but also more inexorably. With Trump we have a chance. People are standing up and fighting back and we’ve already scored some very solid victories. I know I’ve said this about a million times, but under Hillary the resistance would have been next to useless. There would have been no resistance from the Democrats, of course, because Hillary was on “our side”. And resistance from the Republicans would have been their typical nonsensical, ridiculous conspiracy theory stuff – utterly ineffective. Trump is getting resistance from nearly all sides, even (to some extent, anyway), his own.
So very well, said. Lest we forget that we are now exactly where we are with public education due to the terrible DFER/Obama decisions pushed by R2T, the likes of Cory Booker — and there are many DFERs out there much like Booker who will try to make themselves look good as they stand up to fight Trump/DeVos — will yet take us no where different when/if Trump policies are defeated.
Snyder and Maher also decried the inadequacies of history and civics education in our schools. I agree. I fear the trend toward teaching history skill as opposed to history knowledge is going to make matters worse.
The actor, Richard Dreyfuss, has established an initiative, with some of his own millions. Please see
http://www.thedreyfussinitiative.org/
I have often pushed my state legislators, to provide for increased civics/government education in our public schools.
Or cutting history, geography, and civics education entirely. Most of the 8th graders I have NEVER have had history before they enter my class.
Public education is both vulnerable and valuable. We must resist, organize and engage in many levels of activism including contacting representatives, working with parent and social justice groups, protest and even file lawsuits to slow them down and fight back. We should carefully elect representatives and oust those that refuse to support our public institutions. These privateers have vast resources, and we need voters to show up at the polls to get our message heard. We must preserve public education for our children and grandchildren. We cannot afford to lose; public education is what has made America great.
“If a Battle Can’t be Won,
Don’t Fight It.”
Sun Tzu in “The Art of War”
Since 90+% of funding for public education is provided by state/municipal governments, that is where education should be made. School choice/vouchers have been set up by states (Indiana, Arizona), and been defeated in legislatures (Texas).
Any type of federal push for school choice/vouchers is not likely to get anywhere.