It was so clear after a Los Angeles mother gave an interview on either CNN or MSNBC. She completely understood the problem with schools. She knew the schools needed more money. She understood that charter schools drained public money out of schools. The mother supported the teachers. However, when asked if she supported a modest increase in her taxes, she balked. “Our taxes in California are already high,” she responded.
It was not hard to empathize with this woman. California is a high tax state. Asking the middle-class to pony up for everything gets old but most importantly it is unfair.
The problem is that we do not look at education holistically. Funding for education in states like California and Texas depend partially on property taxes above and beyond money from the general fund. This is a recipe for inequality in education, a disaster that is readily apparent. Rich districts are rich areas tend to have good schools with good teachers while poor areas have dilapidated schools many times with less equipped teachers.
Corporate controlled politicians purposely starve government to create a condition of failure. Why? It allows their wealthy benefactors to play the savior role. In this case, private and charter schools funded by the taxpayers do the a job they claim the public sector failed at doing.
These corporations, read the plutocracy, want the commoditization of our most precious assets, our kids. They are the gift that keeps on giving. They are an infinitely renewable source of revenue.
Here is an absolute statement. It is impossible for the private sector to be more efficient in certain sectors of our economy. The fiduciary responsibility for executives of corporations is to make a profit for shareholders. In practice, these executives expect large compensations for said feat. As such, in areas like education and healthcare, the profits and high salaries of executives are an expense we pay with out taxes, higher premiums, or high fees.
So when a charter school or private school come into the fold, they must use underhanded behaviors to give a semblance of being more efficient. And who pays the price for that? Teachers are paid less. They cherry pick students leaving the difficult ones in the public system which further strain that system even as the charter and private schools extract taxes from us all.
Supply-side economics does not only fail theoretically, but it has also failed in practice. Many in the media continue to give it plausibility. Market-based healthcare continues to kill thousands as many go without. Charter schools perform worse than public schools in the aggregate.
There are areas where the private sector is an unmitigated failure. Basic mathematical theory should have been enough to point out that the private sector has no business in these domains.
The expectation is that Americans forget basic math. The truth is that many have been indoctrinated into not applying the principles of math in many areas of our economy. And in doing so we have allowed a class to define a false narrative that we accept on faith.
The solution is not difficult at all. It does require a healthy dose of reprogramming of a large segment of our population who have been coerced by a system that ‘commoditizes’ and capitalizes every aspect of our lives.
A years ago I was one of the executive producers of a Move to Amend documentary titled “Legalize Democracy” where we went into detail over the complete corporate takeover of our lives. The words of Ashley was prescient where she spoke about her internal desperation. When she analyzes here every move, it was driven directly or indirectly by corporate boot on our necks.
Our willful gullibility to the corporate induced indoctrination is destroying our schools. The attack on public schools through privatization is just another sector within out commons falling. If we do not wake up, we will lose it all.