The End of Public Education?

Ever since the pandemic upended public education as we knew it, there has been an attack on public education in this country. This is not new, charter schools and voucher programs have existed since I was school-age almost 20 (yikes, I’m old) years ago. With parents increasingly unhappy with how schools are teaching their children, proponents of school vouchers are using this unhappiness to push for more programs where government money follow kids, even to religious schools.

Colorado was on the forefront of school voucher programs and they have since become popular nationwide. Some districts like the oft-talked abut Washington D.C. school district has adopted them despite pressure from policymakers and parents so that kids who can leave the district at least have the option. What has this all added up to? An attack on education in the US.

The attacks on education have been fomented by some recent developments in the social and identity politics discussions in this country. Between whether children should learn about racism or trans people, parents have started to make the decision to flee the school system altogether.

During the Trump years, Betsy Devos was actively trying to undermine her own Department of Education by dismantling public education. This isn’t new for the Republican party either. Reagan ran on disbanding the Department of Education in the 1980s. Liberalization of the school system spawned the Christian school movement in the 1970s and the homeschooling movement in the 1980s. What comes after public education?

Parents and CRT

One of the flash points of this new attack on public education came in the form of “critical race theory.” Especially on the right-wing, this has become a political movement. School board elections have become knockdown, drag out fights. Parents have gone viral online for their vitriolic speeches at school board meetings and taking over school boards has become a republican political agenda. Critical Race Theory ranks about as high as the “Trans” agenda in education.

Much of this stems from a poor understand of critical race theory. There are things that CRT is and things that CRT is not. Critical Race Theory is an academic term, used primarily in academia to analyze historical events through the lens of racial relations of the day. As a part of American history, it is adding the story of race into the American historical story that is taught in schools.

This has been interpreted as “teaching white kids to feel guilty.” That is only another right-wing talking point. The only way to talk competently about the history of the United States is to include race. This does not mean that every event in American history has to be analyzed through race but it is an important part of the story that has been often left out.

Most people didn’t know about the “Hidden Figures” in NASA’s Apollo program until the popular movie with Taraji P. Henson and Octavia Spencer. Most people don’t know that cowboys were usually not white. The outfits and activities that we associate with ranching cattle were derived from the vaqueros of Mexico based on Spanish traditions. However, among cowboys of the 19th century, many were free blacks or former slaves (after the Civil War) and they moved out west to make a life for themselves. Too often in American history, these stories have been left out of history.

What CRT proposes is that we add those stories in and educate children on how all groups in this country contributed to the America that we know today. Race and class are a vital part of the American story. However, the backlash has much more to do with the changing nature of the American mythology and the stories we tell ourselves about our country.

Library Books

Another area where schools have been on the front-lines of America’s political divides is the library. One does not usually think a library would be a controversial place but thanks to new standards on books and their content, pioneered by Governor Ron DeSantis, librarians have removed books from libraries so that they can be reviewed for any content that might expose sexuality for children at an inappropriate age. Pictures of empty school library shelves have washed across social media.

This is an outgrowth of reactionary panic about kids transitioning genders at school and parents not being told, drag queens reading books at story time, and new children’s books about all kinds of expressions of gender and sexuality. Ultimately, this has much more to do with our unique brand of 21st century gay panic than anything else. People of different gender identities have become far more common in popular and respectable society than in years past. People who are scared of these things know that gay and trans people exist but don’t necessarily want it involved in their everyday lives. They especially don’t want their children to be aware of it for fear that their children might be gay or trans themselves. As much as I may not like it, I certainly understand this perspective. This has all coalesced into debate about what kids should and should not be allowed to read and certain books being “banned.”

School Fees Please

Given that parents are mad about trans agenda, drag queens, and racism, some people who can afford it are fleeing the education system. Still others can’t afford to homeschool their kids but can’t afford private schools either. That is where school vouchers come into play. Once the money (taxpayer money at that) is liberated from the public school in the family neighborhood, parents are free to send their kids to charter school, private religious schools, or other forms of education.

This is where the republican plan kicks into high gear. Once enough students leave there won’t be enough money for the public education system to function in any real capacity. Teachers will be let go, schools will close and anyone who can’t (or won’t) send their kids to another school won’t access education. Poor people, single parents, immigrants, and many others will be left bereft of the one thing that levels the playing field for kids and helps them advance in society. School is one place where immigrant kids can begin to fit into society and become American.

School is one of the few common experiences that people will have in their lives. Education is a vital part of the American story and it is a vital part of our economic might. As it gets undermined, it might please the religious or social ideas of people but it will leave whole swaths of people under-educated and poorly served. We have already seen during the pandemic what effect this has and if it goes nationwide, then we will be facing some tough times indeed.