S.W. Parra / The Fresno Bee
Yes, Republicans nationwide are engaging in concerted efforts to suppress votes, overpower women’s rights and tar and feather Obama. But did you also know that Republicans may be purposely undermining the public education system to keep wealth and power concentrated in the top 1 percent in future generations?
Below is a smattering of recent news that shows Republicans don’t just want to lower taxes on the rich – they want to weaken education. The presumable end goal is to choke off wage growth, restrain social mobility and decrease competition for wealth.
- Rep. Paul Ryan’s federal budget plan introduced this Spring cuts federal education and training investments by 53% per capita compared to 2010 funding levels. Yes, that’s more than half.
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From the Center for American Progress
Republicans in North Carolina recently tried to boot disadvantaged preschoolers out of early education interventions by charging the parents of at-risk children a premium fee to send their 4-year olds to pre-K programs. Gov. Bev Perdue issued an executive order to uphold access, for now. David Parker, chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, had this to say:
This effort by the GOP is nothing more than a Trojan horse designed to turn back the clock on decades of progress and excellence in North Carolina’s public education system. I have no doubt that the ultimate goal for the Republicans is to overturn the Leandro case (which ensures low-income families have access to education services), de-fund our schools and completely dismantle public education in North Carolina…Republicans in the General Assembly are attempting to return to an era of extreme inequality in public education.
- The recent Minnesota government shut down ended with Republicans winning a concession from Democrats to stem the state budget shortfall by delaying $700 million in school funding.
- In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker famously hobbled collective bargaining rights for teachers’ unions this year – even in the face of a massive populist uprising. But did you also know that Walker’s plan slashes school budgets by $834 million over the next two years? In fact, education cuts make up 20% of Wisconsin’s total budget cuts. Furthermore, Walker has ensured that schools can’t make up for the shortfall by raising local property taxes.
- Detroit public school teachers are taking a 10% wage cut and will pay more for health care. At the same time that the Michigan financial “emergency manager,” Roy Roberts, asks teachers to “sacrifice,” he is being chauffeured around in a new $40,000 Chevrolet Tahoe bought by the state.
- The 3,000 schools in Florida’s public school districts will receive zero (ZIP) from the state this year for additions or needed repairs to thousands of aging buildings, while the 350 Republican-favored charter schools have scored the full $55 million pie allocated by the Public Education Capital Outlay program.
The problem is this: If you keep schools underfunded, block preschoolers from accessing early education, keep teachers perpetually unsatisfied, and allow schools to crumble, you are wreaking serious havoc with the future economic security of those passing through the U.S. educational system.
A recent study revealed that only 32% of U.S. students rate as proficient in mathematics, putting American students in 32nd place out of the 65 tested countries – the essence of mediocrity. The same report concluded that the U.S. could increase per capita GDP growth by nearly $1 trillion per year by enhancing its students’ math skills, bringing them on par with students in Canada and South Korea. The trouble is: Republicans don’t care about increasing per capita worth, because that means spreading the wealth around.
Whether or not the theory proposed here is true – that Republicans aim to legislate economic inequality and squash social mobility for generations to come – the fact remains that they are pillaging our education system and its current students right now.
Their purpose seems undeniable: The GOP aims to help the ultra-rich and powerful to continue to hoard wealth (via tax breaks) while the working class drops further behind. That’s not an American ideal. A nation that does not truly value education – and that does not seriously invest in educating its youth – is a nation on its way out.
Vote on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, come hell or high water – both of which scenarios seem more likely if the Republicans gain more control on Capitol Hill.
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Sorry to quote Marx… sorta. But it’s so applicable.
A stupid proletariat is an easily led proletariat. Reject science, have ignorance of how our political process works, and bolster superstitious beliefs…
That’s how we end up with poor people in Nebraska voting Republican against their own economic interests: they simply don’t realize that. They think they’re voting for “the party of Jesus.”
How is all this happening so fast in our country? It’s unbelievable.
And I’ve known this for a long time. Why do people think college is so expensive when in OTHER industrialized countries, a college education is free.
They want us STUPID! Period.
I think people are waking up.
This is what I cannot abide by our current Republiconistic leaders — who are they to rip the American dream from American children?
In my mind this is treason! Now how to prove intent — because I’ve had it – right up to my eyeballs!
My children aren’t poor enough or rich enough to afford an education (post primary) – they can either go into debt or try to get by at the local community college – (that is another story).
You can try to slander my economic track record (why didn’t you save?) but I have reasons why I cannot pay for my children’s educations (market bottom fall out lately), Death of a spouse. But you know, my parents did not have to pay for my education (wasn’t exactly college – but I do okay) and I didn’t have to go into debt (in fact I was paid a stipend!) – WHERE ARE THE EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES FOR OUR KIDS?
But I agree — the Republicans will not be happy until no one but the rich can get an education and they are winning that battle right now!
What future is there for our children without the knowledge and skills to lead themselves — THERE IS NONE!
This fits right in with the article posted on Newsvine earlier this year…
“Meet The Billonaires Who Are Trying To Privatize Our Schools And Kill Public Education”
Lots of links to all kinds of info…very concentrated efforts on behalf of just a few ‘super rich’ people…
http://redsfan.newsvine.com/_news/2011/05/21/6691976-meet-the-billonaires-who-are-trying-to-privatize-our-schools-and-kill-public-education
I’ve been saying it for years.
Knowledge, information and education are enemies of the political right. The facts prove this over and over.
I still tend to believe that this defunding of education is more an act of greed and selfishness, than a deliberate dumbing down, although, I could be wrong. It seems in the long run, that this dumbing down will have a negative economic trickle up up effect. Anyway it reminds me of the Farmer who was bragging that he saved so much money by not feeding his cow. He said he would have gotten her off water too if she hadn’t died.
Knowledge is power. Keep people uneducated. Steep them in fear and hatred of the “other”. Make sure they don’t read, don’t have access to the most basic education and you can control them with religion and superstition. That is the TeaPublican Party.
Might want to do some homework as per capita worth as you mention is NOT a show of spreading the wealth. The republicans often mention per capita or the mean as a way to justify that income has gone up for everyone which could not be farther from the truth, and by using the wrong term you’re merely going to enforce that they’re right when they present it in such a way to those that aren’t going to take the time to look up the proper terms and their corresponding definitions.
Per capita is merely the average which is easily skewed when a few of the majority of the wealth, the main reasons the right points to it currently. IE 10 people have $10 making the average worth per person $10. If you give one person $1000 the average is now $109 giving the false impression that worth has gone up for everyone.
The median is what you want to focus on as it’s the person that lands directly in the middle for wealth making it a more accurate figure for overall health of worth for the population when speaking of money as you are here. The median would be a show of spreading the wealth. And here’s the wiki definition of mean in which they mention exactly what I did above if you’d like to verify:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean
Sorry, don’t mean to be a ball buster but I know there’s going to be some dumb righty that reads this and uses it to back up their false claims and we all know how easily that BS gets spread today for the same reasons you mention in your article.
Your criticism is warranted. I know that per capita is the mean. However, since the study talks about improving education and marketable jobs skills for *individuals* (which, in turn, would boost per capita GDP), *in this case* it seems evident to me that that would grow wealth for individuals — not just the already wealthy.
I was also playing off of its literal meaning “per person.” Republicans don’t care about increasing “per person” wealth…
I think you are nit-picking. It is pretty clear from the context what is meant by the use of “per capita” here.
There is no doubt in my mind that the Republican elite would love to get rid of public education. What is distressing is that their audience is comprised of the very people who need public education the most. By denying them access to education and literacy the Republican elite are ensuring themselves a devoted audience of people who give more credence to emotion and passion than fact. BTW, why is there a huge ad right in the middle of this article calling for people to make President Obama a one-term President?
Regarding the ad – Ads posted here are not endorsed by the author or by the website. The site manager does not block conservative ads from posting because:
If right wing organizations want to use their ad dollars to encourage liberal people to click through to zany conservative polls and ads, we say why not? Every click thru means the Republican cause spends more money on supporting liberal news and information. That’s why we’re okay with ads that are totally disjointed from our content. :)
I clicked thru on the one-term ad … It’s funny that they call Obama the most “partisan, liberal and divisive” president in U.S. history.
And then there are the “liberal” Obama-bashers (and I have my doubts about the veracity of their “liberalness”) who would also like to see Obama be a one-term prez b/c he’s not partisan, liberal or divisive enough. Me, I think he knows what he’s doing, and he doesn’t usually show his hand.
http://thepragmaticprogressive.org/wp/2011/08/31/9-reasons-why-the-lefty-%E2%80%98bath-water%E2%80%99-party-is-wrong-on-obama/
Yes, the Republicans are definitely undermining public education, but really the Obama administration hasn’t done much to help. Race to the Top forces schools to compete for funds, and it’s obvious to me that the schools who have a lot already will be best positioned to “win” more. I’m also philosophically opposed to the idea that public schools should compete for money.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan seems to be a big supporter of voucher schools, which basically siphon money from the already cash-strapped public schools. So, yes, vote November 6, but please also contact your legislators, Arne Duncan, and President Obama to tell them what you value in public schools. Even if the Dems seem more sympathetic to the cause of education, they still need to be pressured to do the right thing and not cave to the forces that want to privatize all education so it’s reserved for the rich.
While i may have been going on previously, it was in the 60s “hippie stop-the-war” era that the decision was made. I had a wonderful public school education, problems with bullies etc. the usual BS growing up – but the actual education was top-notch. My kids went to school and for 12 years almost never brought home one single book. The reason? They only had one set of textbooks for the entire school.
I cannot document this, as I do not remember who, exactly when or where, but I remember clearly a speech being given by some Republican suit complaining at length about how we gave these kids a first-rate education and what did they use it for? To question their elders (and betters.) Never again, was the rerain, and from that era onward schools have been gradally bdefunded. Every year, required to do more with less, to insure the ultimate failure of the system.
Then the wealthy can still educate their kids in private schoola, while the rest of us watch our kids learn from X-Box and Craigslist…
It’s about entitlement – the rich think they are entitled, so nobody else should have a piece of the pie. as the high=paying jobs tend to go to the better educated people, the poor kids with the current level of expectation and marginalization will be increasingly unable to escape from the grind of corporate-sponsored poverty.
What a GREAT answer you are right on
After the Russians sent up Sputnik, education became a priority in the United States. And, yes, when we taught children to think for themselves, and gave them the tools to ferret out truth from lies and propaganda, they went into the streets and raised holy hell – as any rational human WOULD DO. The U.S. public education system has indeed been systematically – and intentionally – gutted, starting in the early to mid-seventies. Ignorant people are SOOOO much easier to control.
I was attending Sacramento State and spent many an afternoon on the capitol lawn for various causes and I remember our wonderful Governor, Ronnie Reagun, making that statement. Of course, he probably lifted it from some other radical. He did that quite often.
That was on the occasion, BTW, when he was raising tuition on the college and university students, trying to defund a number of programs and to fire a bunch of professors who were anti-war and pro-student advocates. He started out by saying, and I remember it quite well, “Ladies and Gentlemen, if there are any present….”