By David Harsanyi
Tuesday, July 07, 2020
‘Public’ schools have been a catastrophe for the United
States. This certainly isn’t an original assertion, but as we watch thousands
of authoritarian brats tearing down the legacies of George Washington and
Abraham Lincoln, it’s more apparent than ever.
State-run schools have undercut two fundamental
conditions of a healthy tolerant society. First, they’ve created millions of
civic illiterates who are disconnected from long-held communal values and
national identity. Second, they’ve exacerbated the very inequalities that
trigger the tearing apart of fissures.
If you’re interested in ferreting out “systemic racism,”
go to a big-city public-school system. No institution has fought harder to
preserve segregated communities than the average teachers’ union. And I don’t
mean only in the schools.
Prosperous Americans already enjoy school choice — and
not merely because they can afford private schools. Anyone who has ever tried
to buy a suburban home in a major metro area can tell you how acutely school
districts influence home prices. Many middle-class and working-class families
are priced out of areas with good schools because of inflated home values and
high property taxes. And families who might otherwise choose to live in more
diverse areas are kept out because of failing schools.
This entire dynamic is driven by the antiquated notion
that the best way to educate kids is to throw them into the nearest government
building. It’s the teachers’ unions that safeguard these fiefdoms through
racketeering schemes: First they funnel taxpayer dollars to the political
campaigns of allies who, when elected, return the favor by protecting union
monopolies and supporting higher taxes that fund unions and ultimately
political campaigns. So goes the cycle, decade after decade, one failed student
after the next.
Even in cities where limited choice exists, most poor
parents, typically black or Hispanic, are compelled to send their kids to
inferior schools, even if there are better-suited schools within walking
distance. More than a decade ago, I sat in a Denver auditorium with a single
Hispanic mom who was, quite literally, praying that her kid’s number would be
picked in a charter-school lottery. The mother wept as her number was passed
over, not because she was a partisan reactionary — she didn’t care about politics
— but because she knew her son would now be forced to attend a subpar and
unsafe high school rather than one specifically designed to help
first-generation kids assimilate.
It was a heartbreaking scene. And it’s only gotten worse.
Colorado has since become a blue state, and Democrats have killed or obstructed
numerous school-choice initiatives once supported by moderates in their party.
In Denver, schools systems have helped solidify segregated communities, and the
achievement
gap between white and minority students is one of the worst in the country.
Nevertheless, Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden
says he’ll create not a child-oriented Department of Education but a
“teacher-oriented Department of Education.” By teachers, Biden means unions. Teachers
unions spent $30 million on federal elections alone in 2016 — virtually all of
it on Democrats. It’s about more than the money they give, however. Unions
organize, campaign, and march for liberal causes. As a Washington Post
piece (“Teachers’ unions may not raise pay — but they do bolster the Democratic
Party”) aptly put it not long ago:
But teachers’ unions do accomplish
something politically notable: They are a vital part of liberal coalitions and
the Democratic Party. Teachers’ union organization and mobilization, like that
of other government workers’ unions, have long compensated for the declining
membership in traditional organized labor. What’s more, they’ve advanced the
causes of women’s and LGBTQ rights — rights that are important to many or most
of their members. They’ve done that by delivering money, mobilization and
organization to both the Democratic Party and to feminist groups.
It’s likely that left-wing ideologues run your school
district. They decide what your children learn. They are the ones who decide
that your kid can protest the Second Amendment of the Constitution, but never,
not in a million years, march for any cause the Founders might have championed.
Anecdotally speaking, I can confirm that the teaching of
American history in at least one D.C. suburb — perhaps a better way to put it
would be the un-teaching of American history — is detestable. Most
events are couched in relativism; or, worse, the textbooks accentuate every sin
and downplay every accomplishment. It would be one thing if this kind of
ideological shading were relegated to history class, but it has infected plenty
of other things.
If you have no interest in funding campaigns for “women’s
and LGBTQ rights” (euphemisms for pro-abortion and anti-religious-liberty
causes), well, that’s too bad. If you can’t homeschool your kid or send her to
a pricey private school, you lose.
The embedded left-wing nature of big school districts is
so normalized that parents rarely say a word. Mom and Dad can buy virtually
anything from anywhere in the world, but they can’t use their tax dollars to
buy Timmy an education that aligns with their values.
It was one thing when these schools were producing mere
Democrats, and it’s quite another now that they’re churning out hordes of chillingly
ignorant voters.
A recent study found that 60
percent of Americans couldn’t pass a U.S. Citizenship Test. It comes as no
surprise that those 65 or older scored the best, with 74 percent correctly
answering at least six out of ten questions. Of those 45 and younger, only 19
percent passed the exam — and the younger the test-takers, the less likely
they were to pass. Sixty percent of those tested didn’t know which countries
their grandparents fought during World War II. And only 24 percent knew why
Americans colonists had fought the British.
Now, I’m under no illusion that higher education is the
sole driver of common sense and patriotism — intellectuals are susceptible to
some the dumbest ideas ever conceived–– but if state-run schools can’t even teach
the Founding, how are we going to move forward as a nation?
Some pundits point out that elite private schools have
even worse problems with progressivism than the average public schools. That’s
probably true — and also largely irrelevant. But a voucher system creates
opportunities for all kinds of students, not just wealthy ones. It stands to
reason, when one considers virtually every other marketplace in existence, that
competition in education would generate a diverse array of schools offering an
array of teaching methods and cultures to meet the needs of consumers. It would
also pressure traditional public schools to do a better job retaining students.
There is no panacea. School choice won’t instantaneously fix our problems. Yet without closing the gap in educational achievement, it seems unlikely we’re going to fix inequality. Without fixing the corrosion of civic education, it’s unlikely that American liberalism is going to survive. We can’t fix either problem without smashing “public education” as it exists. It might already be too late.
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