End of Public Education?

If you are a public school employee and you voted for Trump, this post is for you. 

First, some simple and verifiable facts.  Trump never attended a public school.  All his pre-college education was received in very expensive private schools.  Trump has vowed to end the public school monopoly of education.  He is pro school choice.  His choice for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, is an unashamed opponent of public education who has never worked in a public school or public school system.  She is a billionaire and believes that charter schools and vouchers are the way to improve education.  Both Trump and DeVos are billionaire “school reformers.”  Both are hostile to public education.  Both want to see money earmarked for public education re-directed to charter school operators and parents via vouchers.

If Trump and DeVos have their way, the dismantling of public schools will not only continue, it will accelerate.  Four years of such an effort will decimate public education.

I suppose that first each of us must decide whether the idea of educating every child in this nation is a good idea.  Should we do as many other nations do and simply give a test at the end of 8^th grade that determines who gets to continue their education and who is done?  Should we do as private schools and charter schools do and simply expel students who are low-performing or trouble makers or are in need of special services?  Should we as a nation accept the notion that not all kids will get a high school diploma?  Should we as a nation accept the notion of vouchers so that people of wealth will not have to pay school taxes and private school tuition?  Should we as a nation accept the notion that public dollars may be used to duplicate the public school system in a charter school system that operates with much more flexibility than public schools?  Should we accept the notion that after years and years of data collection it is obvious that charter schools do not outperform public schools and that they can serve as a new tool for segregation?  If your answers to these questions, or even some of these questions, are “yes” then you voted for the correct candidate in the election.

If, on the other hand, you answered “no” to these questions then I surely hope you did not vote for Trump.  A source of real anger and confusion for me is the perpetrated belief that lack of expertise, training, education, knowledge and experience means less in the governing of public schools than wealth.  It is as though one earns a billion dollars and becomes qualified to “fix” public schools.  It is as though one wins an election and becomes qualified to “fix” public schools.  Both theories are seriously flawed.  Neither the wealthy and/or the winning candidate is qualified by the nature of their victory or wealth to make rules governing the medical profession, engineering profession, legal profession, or even ship-building or airplane manufacture, carpentry, plumbing or welding.  And yet we continue to listen to uneducated billionaires who propose a gross array of improvement and reform strategies.  If this were not so ludicrous it would be hysterical.  It is for me a declaration of ignorance to declare I can fix something that I do not understand and admit I do not even know what I do not know and that I do not need to learn.  Why in the world would we listen to the ignorant in an effort to improve the educational system?

Most sad to me is that it looks like we are going to get more money siphoned away from public schools and placed in the hands of the CEO millionaire charter schools and the pockets of wealthy parents who currently still pay school taxes.  As money leaves public education the number of public school employees will also drop.  As money leaves public education the performance outcomes of the most challenging students will drop.  As money leaves public education to flow to charter and private schools we are robbing the poor to feed the wealthy.  Even if charter schools outperformed public schools, which they do not, the real ethical question for me is how are those students remaining in public schools performing after the money has flowed elsewhere?  If charter schools and vouchers were the savior they are lauded as being we should see an improvement in the performance of all kids, those in charters and in private schools and in public schools. But if we see what we continue to see is that public school students suffer when money flows elsewhere, then simply backing strategies that we know harm a majority of the kids in the US is, by definition, immoral.

Unless you are OK with a “yes” answer to the questions in the fourth paragraph.  If you are, then you really do not believe in public schools at all.  If you are an employee of a public school and do not believe in public schools you should probably resign, or do so before your job is cut as the money flows elsewhere.  This nonsense must stop.  I for one want to see every single child in this nation receive a top-notch education in ways that do not line the pockets of charter school CEO’s and wealthy parents.  Unless there were an equal number of seats in charter and private schools to serve all the public school kids there will never really be school choice.  Such a rally cry is just money-driven smoke and mirrors.

Please support public education.  You can do so by opposing more charter schools and vouchers. You can do so by not voting for people who do support charter schools and vouchers.  It is too late for now to cast your vote for President, but in the next two years you will vote for school board members, and state and national legislators.  If the 300,000 employees of public education in Texas voted with one mind they would determine the election outcome.  It is time we do so.