The elephant in the room that is missing from this political cartoon and the overall discussion is that the transition factor from public education to a universal voucher system are CHARTER SCHOOLS. Make no bones about it, the Republican party has hated and wanted to destroy government schools [free public education] since time began. Handing our children over to churches and conservative think tanks is the only way they can beat the demography that is about to make them the opposition party for the foreseeable future.
Recently this charter school issue came up in New York when the new mayor, Bill DeBlasio closed a few charter schools to almost universal complaints ow what a dastardly thing he has done! I noticed on Mornin’ Joe that finger wagging liberal Mika Brzezinski has joined the Right and is having a meltdown over all the poor little black babies being denied an education. Mika Brezinski is to Joe Scarborough what Allen Combs was to Sean Hannity. A liberal wet noodle up against a loud obnoxious conservative.
- Every dollar used by charter schools is a dollar taken away from public education.
- Charter schools care not beholding to how our tax dollars are spent.
- Charter schools take children whose parents who are active in their children’s educations leaving the children that most need help behind.
- Charter schools can deny any child for any reason, no retards, cripples or bad apples.
- Charter schools on average have about the same results as public schools.
- Charter schools are the stepping stone for the Republican plan to hand over public education to churches, Christian book stores and conservative think tanks.All of which are positioning themselves for when vouchers become the law of the land. Charter Schools take a tiny percentage of the cream of the crop leaving less education for the rest of our kids.
But… As you will notice from the protests in the streets of New York it is almost exclusively African Americans led by conservatives advocating for Charter Schools and Vouchers. Same in Washington DC. It’s an “IN” for the GOP to the black communities, though it seems not to help Republicans when it comes time to vote.
Of course the argument is that money matters to everything other than education. I have an idea. Let’s spend the exact same amount of money on educational infrastructure, teachers, administration, books, computers, swimming pools, football in all schools whether they be rural, urban or suburban and see what happens.
Oh, and what’s all this conservative angst over CORE education? It’s harder, relies on science, reading and math, and makes Southern kids look stupid. Which could be easily solved by just ditching the white gravy and using brown gravy on their okra like normal people.