It is racism at its core. When public schools were integrated white parents feared some kind of contamination from having their children sitting in classrooms with black and brown children. This was the impetus for hucksters like Jerry Farwell to create private schools that were for white children only. The cover story was that these were religious institutions as we are seeing today with charter schools that are also by design meant to be for white children only.
The governments are now using taxpayer money to fund schools that exclude the majority of working Americans. Most people do not appreciate how the Land Grant colleges initiated by President Lincoln and later the public universities have provided a better educated worker for businesses that improved their performance and their profits. Today we have elites that think that they can leech off the educated graduates from India and China and Europe and that there is no need to invest in an educated workforce in the USA.
There is also the unfortunate truth about the history of this country that does not support the elites' propaganda that the poor are lazy and that anyone who works hard will succeed in this country. We have the myth of the American solder as a warrior instead of as expendible tools to further the objectives of the rich. We now have the greatest gap between the wealth and the workers that has existed in this country. One would have to go to France or Russia before their revolutions to find its equal.
I believe some Republican official was disturbed recently that the schools were teaching fairness and sharing. He said something like : we've got to stop that. I took it as another Ayn Rand devotee who wishes to promote selfishness as a virtue. I see this philosophy as destructive to civilization if everyone is lying, cheating and stealing you end up with massive chaos. Right now we have Public Schools, Private Schools, Religious Schools, Charter Schools and home education all teaching and ignoring various studies according to their prejudice. This has produced a Country in various stages of ignorance and conflict. Public Schools appears to be what United the people of the USA. I see that letting the South control their education after the Civil War is a major reason for this poison that's crept into our system.
The argument that race is the primary factor motivating the Republicans in schooling issues and in just about everything else is valid and significant. More fundamentally, it is fear, xenophobia, and religious mythology. DeVos is a Christian Dominionist. But knowing that gets us exactly nowhere.
Fearing loss of control and chaos are big for conservatives and Republicans who are actually reactionaries and cult members. Science, knowledge, enlightenment, education, personal autonomy, and democracy are inherently liberal and therefore, threatening to these people. They are grasping at straws and fighting the demons in their imagination.
The association to communism is in the rejection of traditional training and indoctrination and in the inevitable disappearance of rigid discipline, moralistic influence, and individual responsibility for sin of the original variety. They distrust human nature, and they expect a society that is not suppressed and carefully controlled will quickly become debased and degraded.
The solution is education. The most pressing problem, however, is that schools do not and cannot provide education according to our American dreams and mythology. The problem is that our schools are vulnerable because they fail so profoundly to reinforce democratic principles or to endow students with the skills, “critical thinking”, intellectual curiosity and capacity, self-generated knowledge, empathy, creativity, and love of life which are needed for our society to advance.
Authority is inimical to education FULL STOP. Arbitrary authority is toxic to human development and autonomy. Authoritarianism is a cancer on the society. Compulsory attendance LAWS - remember, these are the codes and requirements that control the daily lives of children and teachers quite indiscriminately and mostly anonymously – necessitate a hierarchy and a bureaucracy. Authoritarianism under this paradigm is inescapable.
Everything else is a distraction and a superficial issue. If people will tolerate paternalistic, unconstitutional, and misanthropic laws to stand, all is lost. There is no such thing as mass education. Education and coercion are antithetical. The separation of school and state are no less crucial than the separation of church and state and are often the same thing. I keep repeating myself hoping the message will sink in someday. Minorities in bad public schools will not fix our problems. Bad schools merely harm more kids. Are there no minorities out there at least who get it?
America is, without doubt, the most complicated social and governmental experiment in the history of Mankind. As of the 2020 census (https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/08/2020-united-states-population-more-racially-ethnically-diverse-than-2010.html) shows that America is the most diverse population cohort in history. The diversity index is a remarkable statistic mirror. We should be very proud of ourselves and our country. In general our K-12 education system is doing well teaching the children of almost 165 million new immigrants to America; however, despite promises by Democratic sponsors that the change in the immigration Act and Quotas for countries of Origin that our cities would not be flooded with immigrants (https://www.history.com/news/immigration-act-1965-changes) history shows that 14% of the US population is now a first generation American, and many of our urban schools have a majority of non-English speaking students in most of their classes. We are crossing 10 million ELL students in 2020 with most US schools unable to find enough teachers or classrooms to maintain standard based grade level education for all students - whether they speak English or not, or whether they arrive in America with any prior education at all https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cgf.
One perspective, and one looking glass to use, instead of the politics of "Race, Race, Race," or Republicans vs. Democrats, or urban vs. rural, it might be more productive to calm the waters and keep looking at what other countries are doing in public education (https://www.edsys.in/best-education-system-in-the-world/). Perhaps we should send US teachers as ambassadors to these countries to report back to all our parents, conservatives and liberals.
And then focus on HOW TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN BY STARTING WITH A FULLY FUNDED K-12 PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM FOR ALL OUR CHILDREN. INCLUDING AFTER SCHOOL STUDY SUPPORT FOR ANY CHILD WHO IS NOT ABLE TO DO GRADE LEVEL WORK. MEETING CONSERVATIVES WITH A ZERO TOLERANCE FOR FAILING GUARANTEE AT THE END OF EACH CLASS BY REQUIRING A NON-PASSING STUDENT TO EITHER REPEAT CLASS OR TRY TO PASS DURING A SUMMER SCHOOL WITH RIGOROUS HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR ALL OUR CHILDREN, PERIOD.
In today's school system too many public schools in all US states are NOT passing grade level standards any longer, but parents want their children to be 'socially promoted' to the next grade level regardless of students accumulating an increasing comprehension deficit gap (https://www.educationnext.org/state-standards-rising-in-reading-but-not-in-math/). And, it's NOT a racial or poverty issue at all; it's a low expectation issue.
In this context the students who are motivated and able to to do grade level work are facing a massive, rising wave of students who are needing teachers' attention to catch up, or simply to manage behavior. Thus many parents feel our public school systems are failing their children, and they feel compelled to look for other venues of education, be it home schooling or private schools.
This whole process is a loaded emotional issue that unfortunately is feeding our current politics, and, equally unfortunate, has become a driving force for things like CRT social agendas.
Our children have ONE GENERATIONAL OPPORTUNITY to excel in their K-12 Journey: Adults, liberals and conservatives, could all do themselves and our students a huge favor by quietly volunteering to read or tutor Math and science in neighboring schools for 1-2 hours each week. Or join Big Brother and Big Sister programs doing after school home work with kids who have no one at home to help them.
Seriously, many of us are NOT interested in any of the politics or philosophies of years past that have kept America's children from succeeding in school, and instead sent them to jail later on. We have too many kids right NOW who need our attention and SUPPORT. please.
Mr. Hartman's citation:
The issue of privatizing public schools came up in Arizona in 2018 with a statewide ballot initiative that would extend free school vouchers to every student in the state: it was defeated by voters by a 2:1 ratio. Writing for The Arizona Republic, columnist Laurie Roberts was unambiguous in her description of the state’s voters’ horror at the ballot initiative
It's definitely racism, but the goal is to prevent Americans from realizing it's 319,999,975 of us against 25 fascist billionaires. They can't fool 1/3 of us unless we are throwing fruit at each other.
Yep. We've ignored the Confederate culture for too long, but I have had the bad luck to know some of them well enough that they confided how they really feel. They hate our government. They hate democracy. They feel like a subjugated conquered people, which they are. They are Patriots, but not to the United States. They are still fighting the civil war and we have not been paying enough attention.
Yep. We've ignored the Confederate culture for too long, but I have had the bad luck to know some of them well enough that they confided how they really feel. They hate our government. They hate democracy. They feel like a subjugated conquered people, which they are. They are Patriots, but not to the United States. They are still fighting the civil war and we have not been paying enough attention.
It’s racism, but it’s also economic ideology separate from racism. DeVos, Peroutka and thousands of other libertarians do belief that all nonmilitary government programs are illicit socialism, which they also call communism because that’s a more powerful pejorative than ‘socialist.’. Even if there were no nonwhites here, Peroutka would still be calling public schools communist.and pledging to end them. And as for Republican voters supporting the publc schools their own kids attend? Don’t bet on it. Once people have joined a cult, they lose all agency.
One other thing: DeVos, Peroutka and Governor Ducey all understand that public education is one of the last pillars of union across the U.S. Peroutka being a neoconfederate, he wants to enable a New Secession.
It's not racism, though these folks do believe in the concept of race. As we all know, if you believe in the concept of race, you are prejudiced. If you and I are different races, then ONE of us has to be smarter or faster or taller, we can't be equal or we'd both be humans.
This is pure unadulterated selfishness. They are ignorant and unable to reason, so they can't appeal to informed people who can reason.
They sell racism because racists are the only people ignorant enough to be fooled by them.
It is racism at its core. When public schools were integrated white parents feared some kind of contamination from having their children sitting in classrooms with black and brown children. This was the impetus for hucksters like Jerry Farwell to create private schools that were for white children only. The cover story was that these were religious institutions as we are seeing today with charter schools that are also by design meant to be for white children only.
The governments are now using taxpayer money to fund schools that exclude the majority of working Americans. Most people do not appreciate how the Land Grant colleges initiated by President Lincoln and later the public universities have provided a better educated worker for businesses that improved their performance and their profits. Today we have elites that think that they can leech off the educated graduates from India and China and Europe and that there is no need to invest in an educated workforce in the USA.
There is also the unfortunate truth about the history of this country that does not support the elites' propaganda that the poor are lazy and that anyone who works hard will succeed in this country. We have the myth of the American solder as a warrior instead of as expendible tools to further the objectives of the rich. We now have the greatest gap between the wealth and the workers that has existed in this country. One would have to go to France or Russia before their revolutions to find its equal.
I believe some Republican official was disturbed recently that the schools were teaching fairness and sharing. He said something like : we've got to stop that. I took it as another Ayn Rand devotee who wishes to promote selfishness as a virtue. I see this philosophy as destructive to civilization if everyone is lying, cheating and stealing you end up with massive chaos. Right now we have Public Schools, Private Schools, Religious Schools, Charter Schools and home education all teaching and ignoring various studies according to their prejudice. This has produced a Country in various stages of ignorance and conflict. Public Schools appears to be what United the people of the USA. I see that letting the South control their education after the Civil War is a major reason for this poison that's crept into our system.
Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life.
Thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a
new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also
by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited
opportunities for both.
- Eric Hoffer (July 25,1902-1983)
The argument that race is the primary factor motivating the Republicans in schooling issues and in just about everything else is valid and significant. More fundamentally, it is fear, xenophobia, and religious mythology. DeVos is a Christian Dominionist. But knowing that gets us exactly nowhere.
Fearing loss of control and chaos are big for conservatives and Republicans who are actually reactionaries and cult members. Science, knowledge, enlightenment, education, personal autonomy, and democracy are inherently liberal and therefore, threatening to these people. They are grasping at straws and fighting the demons in their imagination.
The association to communism is in the rejection of traditional training and indoctrination and in the inevitable disappearance of rigid discipline, moralistic influence, and individual responsibility for sin of the original variety. They distrust human nature, and they expect a society that is not suppressed and carefully controlled will quickly become debased and degraded.
The solution is education. The most pressing problem, however, is that schools do not and cannot provide education according to our American dreams and mythology. The problem is that our schools are vulnerable because they fail so profoundly to reinforce democratic principles or to endow students with the skills, “critical thinking”, intellectual curiosity and capacity, self-generated knowledge, empathy, creativity, and love of life which are needed for our society to advance.
Authority is inimical to education FULL STOP. Arbitrary authority is toxic to human development and autonomy. Authoritarianism is a cancer on the society. Compulsory attendance LAWS - remember, these are the codes and requirements that control the daily lives of children and teachers quite indiscriminately and mostly anonymously – necessitate a hierarchy and a bureaucracy. Authoritarianism under this paradigm is inescapable.
Everything else is a distraction and a superficial issue. If people will tolerate paternalistic, unconstitutional, and misanthropic laws to stand, all is lost. There is no such thing as mass education. Education and coercion are antithetical. The separation of school and state are no less crucial than the separation of church and state and are often the same thing. I keep repeating myself hoping the message will sink in someday. Minorities in bad public schools will not fix our problems. Bad schools merely harm more kids. Are there no minorities out there at least who get it?
America is, without doubt, the most complicated social and governmental experiment in the history of Mankind. As of the 2020 census (https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/08/2020-united-states-population-more-racially-ethnically-diverse-than-2010.html) shows that America is the most diverse population cohort in history. The diversity index is a remarkable statistic mirror. We should be very proud of ourselves and our country. In general our K-12 education system is doing well teaching the children of almost 165 million new immigrants to America; however, despite promises by Democratic sponsors that the change in the immigration Act and Quotas for countries of Origin that our cities would not be flooded with immigrants (https://www.history.com/news/immigration-act-1965-changes) history shows that 14% of the US population is now a first generation American, and many of our urban schools have a majority of non-English speaking students in most of their classes. We are crossing 10 million ELL students in 2020 with most US schools unable to find enough teachers or classrooms to maintain standard based grade level education for all students - whether they speak English or not, or whether they arrive in America with any prior education at all https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cgf.
At this time in history US K-12 public schools are underfunded and understaffed, and mostly NOT able to guarantee all their students a world-class education (https://drpfconsults.com/educational-system-in-america-compares-education-countries/). Our students' literacy rates, Math and Science skills are not on par with other western countries any longer (https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-highest-literacy-rates-in-the-world.html).
One perspective, and one looking glass to use, instead of the politics of "Race, Race, Race," or Republicans vs. Democrats, or urban vs. rural, it might be more productive to calm the waters and keep looking at what other countries are doing in public education (https://www.edsys.in/best-education-system-in-the-world/). Perhaps we should send US teachers as ambassadors to these countries to report back to all our parents, conservatives and liberals.
And then focus on HOW TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN BY STARTING WITH A FULLY FUNDED K-12 PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM FOR ALL OUR CHILDREN. INCLUDING AFTER SCHOOL STUDY SUPPORT FOR ANY CHILD WHO IS NOT ABLE TO DO GRADE LEVEL WORK. MEETING CONSERVATIVES WITH A ZERO TOLERANCE FOR FAILING GUARANTEE AT THE END OF EACH CLASS BY REQUIRING A NON-PASSING STUDENT TO EITHER REPEAT CLASS OR TRY TO PASS DURING A SUMMER SCHOOL WITH RIGOROUS HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR ALL OUR CHILDREN, PERIOD.
In today's school system too many public schools in all US states are NOT passing grade level standards any longer, but parents want their children to be 'socially promoted' to the next grade level regardless of students accumulating an increasing comprehension deficit gap (https://www.educationnext.org/state-standards-rising-in-reading-but-not-in-math/). And, it's NOT a racial or poverty issue at all; it's a low expectation issue.
In this context the students who are motivated and able to to do grade level work are facing a massive, rising wave of students who are needing teachers' attention to catch up, or simply to manage behavior. Thus many parents feel our public school systems are failing their children, and they feel compelled to look for other venues of education, be it home schooling or private schools.
This whole process is a loaded emotional issue that unfortunately is feeding our current politics, and, equally unfortunate, has become a driving force for things like CRT social agendas.
Our children have ONE GENERATIONAL OPPORTUNITY to excel in their K-12 Journey: Adults, liberals and conservatives, could all do themselves and our students a huge favor by quietly volunteering to read or tutor Math and science in neighboring schools for 1-2 hours each week. Or join Big Brother and Big Sister programs doing after school home work with kids who have no one at home to help them.
Seriously, many of us are NOT interested in any of the politics or philosophies of years past that have kept America's children from succeeding in school, and instead sent them to jail later on. We have too many kids right NOW who need our attention and SUPPORT. please.
Mr. Hartman's citation:
The issue of privatizing public schools came up in Arizona in 2018 with a statewide ballot initiative that would extend free school vouchers to every student in the state: it was defeated by voters by a 2:1 ratio. Writing for The Arizona Republic, columnist Laurie Roberts was unambiguous in her description of the state’s voters’ horror at the ballot initiative
It's definitely racism, but the goal is to prevent Americans from realizing it's 319,999,975 of us against 25 fascist billionaires. They can't fool 1/3 of us unless we are throwing fruit at each other.
Yep. We've ignored the Confederate culture for too long, but I have had the bad luck to know some of them well enough that they confided how they really feel. They hate our government. They hate democracy. They feel like a subjugated conquered people, which they are. They are Patriots, but not to the United States. They are still fighting the civil war and we have not been paying enough attention.
Yep. We've ignored the Confederate culture for too long, but I have had the bad luck to know some of them well enough that they confided how they really feel. They hate our government. They hate democracy. They feel like a subjugated conquered people, which they are. They are Patriots, but not to the United States. They are still fighting the civil war and we have not been paying enough attention.
It’s racism, but it’s also economic ideology separate from racism. DeVos, Peroutka and thousands of other libertarians do belief that all nonmilitary government programs are illicit socialism, which they also call communism because that’s a more powerful pejorative than ‘socialist.’. Even if there were no nonwhites here, Peroutka would still be calling public schools communist.and pledging to end them. And as for Republican voters supporting the publc schools their own kids attend? Don’t bet on it. Once people have joined a cult, they lose all agency.
One other thing: DeVos, Peroutka and Governor Ducey all understand that public education is one of the last pillars of union across the U.S. Peroutka being a neoconfederate, he wants to enable a New Secession.
It's not racism, though these folks do believe in the concept of race. As we all know, if you believe in the concept of race, you are prejudiced. If you and I are different races, then ONE of us has to be smarter or faster or taller, we can't be equal or we'd both be humans.
This is pure unadulterated selfishness. They are ignorant and unable to reason, so they can't appeal to informed people who can reason.
They sell racism because racists are the only people ignorant enough to be fooled by them.
It's that simple.