Are We Witnessing the End of Public Education as We Know It? — Part One
By Jim Miller / Kelly Mayhew
These are dire times for public education. With Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education leading the charge for big budget cuts, charter schools, and a radical privatization agenda, the possibility that free quality public education for all in America could soon be a thing of the past is real.
One would think that such clear and present danger to a cornerstone of our democracy coming from the right would unite Democrats behind the mantle of defending public education.
Sadly, however, that is not the case as even now, in the face of this assault, we see Democrats lining up with the billionaire-funded charter school lobby to wage holy war on teachers’ unions in name of making it easier to get rid of “bad teachers” to save the children.
Such was the rhetoric in the most expensive education board race in the history of the United States in Los Angeles where the billionaire boys club bought the LA school board and is set to greatly expand charters, many of them unregulated hence undermining the funding of traditional public schools.
… it seems that we have one party that has declared war on the very idea of public education and another that has become a very fickle defender of the educational commons.
But in the face of this, too many Democrats, including many prominent local electeds, have recently been busy working to extend the time it takes for a teacher to receive tenure rather than vigorously defending public education as it faces an existential threat. The reality is that we are suffering from a teacher shortage that is growing to crisis levels statewide, yet these lawmakers seem hell-bent to “take on the teachers’ unions” in the name of solving the wrong problem.
This says much more about the victory of neoliberal ideology inside the Democratic party when it comes to education issues than it does about actual problems our teachers face every day in the classroom.
So, at present, it seems that we have one party that has declared war on the very idea of public Are We Witnessing the End of Public Education as We Know It? — Part One: