#education #PublicEducation #bathrooms #BookBans #pronouns #SchoolSports
It’s tough to improve public education when officials – many of whom are elected – talk more about bathrooms, book bans, pronouns and whether transgender students should play on girls sports teams.
No one seems to be talking about things like middle school design, high school size and pupil-teacher ratios, as they had in the past.
But, maybe that’s the point. If officials focus on seemingly extraneous issues, public education will go away, and students will be left to fend for themselves in the private school market.
Maureen Downey, recently retired education columnist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, addressed this in her November 26, 2024, column.
On the federal level, there’s a push to abolish the U.S. Department of Education. Of course, the states do not want to see the federal education money dry up, but they just don’t want all the regulations that may come with that money.
Besides, the bathroom and book-ban talk gets many voters riled up, Downey points out.
Regardless of what anyone thinks of public schools, they have to take every kid. Private schools can discriminate about which kids they take.
And, if public schools are underfunded, the students are very likely to be less well educated, especially when school officials focus more on extraneous, but provocative, issues more than they focus on student achievement, getting the best teachers and having everything students need to get the best education possible.
But, some elected officials don’t necessarily want smart kids. The smarter the kid, the smarter the adults they will become. They may actually see the extraneous issues for what they are, and vote out some of these elected officials.
These officials may prefer to simply teach obedience rather than creativity. They see danger in encouraging kids to have minds of their own.
These same officials also oppose widespread immigration. If the children we are educating don’t have the smarts it will take to do the jobs of tomorrow, those brains may have to come from other countries.
Many highly technical U.S. jobs are held by people with very foreign-sounding names. Some of these are American, but some are not.
As Downey points out, 56 percent of Georgia students test below proficiency in algebra. Algebra is the beginning of more advanced math, which is and will be required for the jobs of the future.
As discussed here previously, there’s a desire to control smart people, including teachers. Discrediting their work, creativity and ingenuity enhances desired political narratives.
If children become too smart, they can discredit and disprove those desired political narratives.
Therefore, highlighting extraneous issues in education creates the anger the officials want and makes it easier to dismantle public education.
So, if these officials succeed, if you have a student with disabilities or other learning issues and you are forced into the private market to educate them, good luck finding a school that will take them.
If your child is shut out of the private education market, it won’t matter what bathroom or pronoun that student uses.
Peter