by David Safier
Cal Thomas is a conservative columnist, usually very conservative, though I haven't read him enough to put him in a specific category.
He has a column in today's Washington Times titled Liberation from liberalism: Escaping government schools is key to reclaiming America. He makes his point loud and clear. Traditional public schools aren't teaching the principles of liberty and allegiance to the Constitution, which are ideas, apparently, liberals hate. Good charter schools and good private schools are doing the job. So . . .
If conservatives and Republicans support an exodus from public schools as a strategic goal, they will strike at the heart of liberalism while simultaneously liberating minorities trapped in failed government schools. To free them and teach them about America and its promise of hope would produce everything they are seeking but can't find in politics. It also would pay political dividends as children and their parents saw which party and persuasion cared about them enough to bring real change to their lives.
Thomas doesn't speak for all conservatives, but he's giving voice to an idea that has been prominent in conservative thinking at least since the Reagan years. Many conservatives, including members of our state legislatures, want to kill, or at least cripple, public schools. Sometimes the complex legal and legislative twists and turns obscure their underlying hatred of public schooling that Thomas lays out so clearly.
(Hat tip to AZ Blue Meanie for pointing me to the column.)
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Having the government continue to pay for government schools because they have done it in the past is logic that doesn’t hold up.
My parents paid in full for all my government schooling (via taxation).
If government ownership of schools produced great results that everybody was happy with nobody would be discussing this.
http://www.homeschoolinginarizona.com/
So Thane, are you saying that parents are responsible for the full cost of their child’s education? Did your parents pay in full for yours? Your logic doesn’t hold up.
We all pay for the education of all children because it’s the right thing to do, and because someone else paid for our education in the past.
The fact that X percent of parents send their children to public (government) school that (directly) costs nothing out of pocket is no particular endorsement. If the State of Arizona were charging parents what it costs to provide schooling I’ll bet far fewer parents would continue to send their children to government schools.
I’d like to point out that there are roughly 1 million school children attending a public school (that includes Charters) in Arizona. Approximately 1 in 10 of those students attends a Charter school. So, that means 9 out of 10 children attend a “government” school. That’s a pretty good endorsement.
Since when are Charter schools not government run schools? They spend tax dollars, just like their “public school” brethren. It’s not like the State collects a “patriot tax” and spends that money on police and Charter schools, and then collects a “liberal tax” and spends it on Public schools and abortions.
Conservatives need to face reality. A properly funded, well operated Government benefits everyone, liberal, conservative, or green. We can disagree on the size of government and the level of services provided, but government operated schools is a basic essential.
Ironically, the same conservatives who charge that our government schools are broken use the success of government run schools in other countries as proof of our failures.
This has been well documented for years; starting with Lynn Cheney’s ability to sell her books to the home schooling set (previously they had been rejected pre 2000), starting with history for the k-6 “because current history books don’t emphasis white man’s accomplishments enough” (I kid you not). Followed by complaints that their kids became more “liberal” after they went to college (not that they were smarter). And so conservative colleges were developed with an emphasis in teaching their version of the constitution, government and preparing politically minded students to be in government. This is not new.
One of the reasons for the extreme political divide in this country is due to having two very different set of facts.
What’s lost in a public school system is that society had a standard that most people learned. Now were seeing the results of a generation coming to age that has been educated under this dual system of beliefs.
One thing conservatives are very good at is paying attention to and developing infrastructure. While Clinton was in office, they got very busy with state politics and getting their message out, which has payed off well. Now the schools and churches deliver conservative agenda, completely outside of media (what they call “filters” such as fact-checking).
I have to work hard to get reliable local information and rarely do I feel confident in what I do get. That’s what dooms the state.
Thane, when someone who is good with words says leaving public schools is “a strategic goal, they will strike at the heart of liberalism,” that speaks of a far broader agenda than educating children.
A very interesting post you have here. The puzzle for me is that Mr. Thomas seems to clearly state that he is disappointed in the job public schools do and yet you end you close by saying that Mr. Thomas hates public schooling. I see a difference between hating the poor results of public schooling and public schooling itself.
Mr. Thomas and I both see that the results of public schooling are wanting. Do I hate public schooling? If it didn’t confiscate my money via taxes I would probably be rather indifferent to government schools.
In any case the problem is that Mr. Thomas (and plenty of others) believe that public schools don’t teach the principles of the US Constitution. Unfortunately I see liberals and conservatives apparently have very different English dictionaries when it comes to defining words and if you disagree what “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” means then you are naturally going to disagree as to how well the schools educate students about the US Constitution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution#Text