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Menckens Ghost
More About: Education: Government SchoolsConservatives and liberals in bed with public ed
By Mencken’s Ghost
Dec. 29, 2011
It also makes strange intellectual inconsistencies.
These two realizations came to mind while listening recently to the big conservative radio station in Phoenix, KFYI. A host and co-host were saying that no one could disagree that public education needed more funding.
To make their case, they repeated every cliché, platitude, nostrum, and canard that their ideological enemies on the left make to support increased spending on education. Strange bedfellows, indeed.
At the same time, the same radio station, reflecting the majority view of conservatives locally and nationally, constantly rails against socialized medical care.
It is indeed a strange intellectual inconsistency to be against socialized medical care but to be for socialized education. Is medical care less important than education? It certainly isn’t less important to a parent whose child is deathly ill.
What accounts for this intellectual inconsistency?
One possible answer is insulting to conservatives, because it suggests that they cannot think past today. It’s not an answer I embrace, because most conservatives I know are deeper thinkers than that. Anyway, the answer is that they haven’t given much thought to the coercive, socialistic nature of public education because it has existed since the late 19th century. Socialized medicine, on the other hand, is something new, or least Obama Care is something new.
(Actually, socialized medicine has been around since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid nearly a half-century ago. How’s that working out?)
Another possible answer is a cynical one. It is that conservatives embrace socialized education because of self-interest. Not only are their suburban school districts above average compared to inner-city schools, but conservatives don’t have to pay the full cost of their children’s education because they are subsidized by people and businesses that pay education taxes but don’t use the schools. In economics lingo, that makes them price-insensitive.
Self-interest might be at work, but a better explanation for the intellectual inconsistency of conservatives about public education is that 90% of them attended public schools. Public schools are not the place to learn all of the facts and history about public education. They are a place, however, to learn the following myths about public education.
The Universal Education Myth: This is the myth that parents would let their children remain ignorant and illiterate if it were not for the government achieving universal education through compulsory taxes and compulsory school attendance. How ridiculous! First, this premise is insulting to parents. Second, with 30% of students dropping out nationally and 48% dropping out in inner cities, universal education is not being achieved through socialized education. Third, the myth assumes that non-governmental solutions to 19th century ignorance and illiteracy wouldn’t have developed as Americans left farms for cities and as the nation became more prosperous. Fourth, it ignores the fact that the public education movement was largely a progressive Protestant movement with a goal of putting successful and inexpensive Catholic schools out of business and teaching “Papists” the King James Bible in public schools.
The Poverty Myth: This myth is actually a non sequitur. It goes like this: Because the poor don’t have the means to educate their children, the education of the non-poor also should be subsidized and socialized. Using this illogic, the non-poor should be forced to participate in the food stamp program, to live in government housing, and to get their medical care through Medicaid or Obama Care. A better solution to the poverty problem is for the non-poor to pay the full cost of their children’s education through tuition fees and for school taxes to only go to the poor. Be careful when suggesting this, though, as it produces angry reactions in conservatives who love their public education subsidies.
The American Values Myth: This is a hilarious myth. It says that public schools are places where children learn American values and history. Ha-ha-ha! Too funny. Perhaps they were such places when decisions were local, but, today, schools are places where people fight over values imposed from on-high--over such issues as prayer in school, dress codes, speech codes, political correctness, school lunch menus, and what version of history should be taught. They also are places that use textbooks based on what passes muster in California and Texas, the two major markets that publishers use as a guide for the rest of the nation. And they are places dominated by a union mentality, a mentality that is at odds with free-market capitalism.
The
Under-funded Myth: This myth of schools being under-funded
is a whopper fueled by self-interest; that is, by parents and school staff who
benefit directly from socialized education. Here are some dynamite facts that
blow up the myth:
The Keep up with the Joneses Myth: The conservative radio hosts mentioned at the beginning of this commentary believe this myth. They believe that if Arizona doesn’t increase per-pupil spending to at least the national average, it will not attract industry and its education will be sub-par. There is no evidence to support this. In fact, states that rank near the top in education spending are losing population and industry to states like Arizona, primarily due to the high taxes in the losing states. Also, when test results are adjusted for race, income and immigrant status, Arizona ranks equal to, or better than, higher-spending states.
In summary, don’t expect conservatives to admit their intellectual inconsistency. When it comes to public ed, they like being in the warm and cozy liberal bed.
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Mencken’s Ghost is the nom de plume of an Arizona writer who can be reached at ghost@menckensghost .com.
1 Comments in Response to Conservatives and liberals in bed with public ed
Hey, Ghost,
Good article! As for the conservatives and liberals being in bed - together, what's new? "Public education" is just that, if one accepts education as a euphemism for indoctrination. (I'd opine that there is nothing "intellectual" or particularly "inconsistent" about any of this.)
Brainwashing the masses serves government as well as any of its draconian abuses!
Keep haunting.