I am happy to announce our long national nightmare is over. As of Monday, March 3rd, we…finally have a new Secretary of Education! Although I doubt we’re going to see steel cage matches at Cabinet meetings (then again, this is the Don’t Give A Fuck Trump we’re dealing with here, so I can’t write it off completely), Secretary Linda McMahon might do something even more awesome: getting rid of the Department of Education.
While Leftists worry about how their scam…I mean money laundering…I mean direction for public education will impact the country, some of us (like your humble correspondent) are just saving up our money to spend at the DOE fire sale that will come about if Secretary McMahon can make good on her promise.
With public education coming under more scrutiny in the past few years, a little more scrutiny of the federal government’s role in it is warranted. And since we don’t have any experts on the payroll, you’re stuck with me.
I’m sorry. Or you’re welcome. You know, whichever.
Department of Education
What the Left thinks it means – a vital part of the government charged with ensuring the quality of American education
What it really means – a dumpster fire fueled by waste, corruption, and Leftist incompetence
Although the shitshow that is the Department of Education is relatively recently, its history goes back a while. Thanks to Andrew Jackson, the department came into being in 1867, so we have another thing he could have been impeached for. But it wasn’t until 1979 that the Department of Education became a Cabinet post. This meant two things: 1) DOE staffers could finally access the White House salad bar more than once, and 2) it became a far heavier hitter than it was before.
And that made it a target for lobbyists, especially teachers unions.
Since then, we’ve seen a strange inverse relationship. We keep spending more on education, but getting worse results. In spite of this, Leftists keep insisting more money needs to get spent because…well, they haven’t figured that part out yet, but I’m sure they’ll get to it. And I’m sure the Department of Education will get right on that.
Wait. You mean they’re too busy taking policy cues from teachers unions to do anything about it? Oh, silly me!
And therein lies a problem. When you have the ear of a powerful entity who will do what you want, you’re going to keep pushing the envelope more than a postal employee working straight commission. That leads to the organization moving away from the main reason it was established and moving towards whatever the unions want regardless of whether it helps the people they claim to be representing.
And if the Department of Education were in a BDSM relationship with teachers unions, it would definitely be the bottom. (Author’s Note: if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’re better off not knowing.)
But where do politics enter into the picture? Many educators lean so far Left they could stand on the ground and be parallel to it at the same time. So, if they want the Leftist point of view to dominate the classroom, they have a vested interest in keeping the Department of Education in line with their vision. And how do you keep that happening? Why, voting for fellow Leftists! Oh, and attacking anyone who wants to throw a spanner in the works.
That explains the anti-DOGE sentiment with the Left, come to think of it. But I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.
One thing the Left had going for it was parental ignorance. For a looooooooong time, parents really didn’t pay attention to what their children were learning. Sure, you’d see a conservative mother complaining once in a while over a math question that involved unnecessary race elements, but these were the exception not the rule.
Then COVID happened. With public schools being shuttered tighter than a wet prostitute’s dress, parents had to take a more hands-on approach and got a chance to see what passed for education these days. To put it lightly, they weren’t happy. Out of this came groups like Moms for Liberty who (despite being labeled extremist by the dipshits at the Southern Poverty Law Center) had a core belief that parents have a say in public education. How radical!
And I mean that in the 80s sense, kids.
Although Ronald Reagan and other Republican Presidents have called for the abolition of the Department of Education, it’s always been a pipe dream, thanks in large part to the media repeating Leftist squawking points (because, well, the media are Leftists, too). Plus, the Department of Education has been such a part of our societal conscience that it’s hard to imagine what it would be like not to have it around.
That’s where I come in.
I am one of those folks who was educated while the modern Department of Education was a gleam in a bureaucrat’s eye. Granted, it was around the time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, but I kept my cave drawings to refer to here. Up through the 4th grade, school was the way it was presented to me, but by the 5th grade, I noticed a subtle change.
And it involved the Pledge of Allegiance.
In the 4th grade, my class would recite the Pledge every day without fail. It became a part of the school day, one that I didn’t fully appreciate at the time because I was a dumb kid. Then in 5th grade…we just didn’t do it anymore. It wasn’t the lack of the Pledge that caused the slide in educational quality, mind you, but it was the touchpoint where I noticed things were changing. Being the youngest of three boys also gave me an insight into what my older brothers learned, and even then I noticed the stuff I was learning wasn’t as extensive as it was with them.
And judging from the advent of Common Core math, standards have gone down further than a toboggan run down the Grand Canyon.
With results like what we’ve seen since the Department of Education became a Cabinet post, why should we keep it around? No matter what excuse Leftists come up with to keep it on the payroll, the results we’re getting aren’t worth the money we’re spending to get them. Something has to change.
Many parents have looked to homeschooling and private schools as potential fixes, and they’re not wrong. Call me crazy (and you wouldn’t be wrong to do so), but it seems the further away from Washington the control of education gets, the better it gets. And, really, you’re not going to find a federal bureaucrat who will give as much of a shit about the students at your local school than you do. Even if you don’t have a kid in school, you kinda feel like you owe it to them to support the school in some fashion because a) you want the best for the kids, b) you want to set a good example, and c) you’re not a complete shithead.
And this is the best reason to give the Department of Education the rhetorical Tombstone Piledriver. The closer the parents are to the people making the decisions, the more of a reason the decision-makers have to listen. And if someone has a torch and pitchfork concession on the way, you can shop locally, so win-win! You may run into the same hassles you do now with teachers unions and their political lackeys, but the bureaucracy will be far easier to navigate, and you won’t have to fight DC traffic unless you live there.
So, if you haven’t guessed by now, I’m all behind Secretary McMahon’s goal to lead the Department into oblivion. And that’s the bottom line ’cause Stone Cold said so!
And by Stone Cold, I mean me.
Tag: public education
How Good is “The Public Good”?
There’s a general concept within Leftist circles designed to get people to think in communal terms instead of individual terms. I call it “the public good” argument. Basically, whatever a Leftist wants gets argued in terms of the bigger picture for the greater good (or at least their version of it). I ran into this recently and decided it would be a good concept to explore. Oh, and make fun of.
As with so many things these days, it started with a meme…
A Leftist Facebook friend posted a meme with the “public funds should go to public school” idea Leftists have advanced in the past few years in response to parents taking their children out of public schools and either sending them to private schools using vouchers or homeschooling. Because who doesn’t want to send their kids to a school system that even Leftists think suck ass? (I mean, aside from Leftist politicians with kids. They get to go to private school without so much as a mumble of protest from these public school fans.)
Anyway, the original post mentioned “the public good” to praise public schools and to denigrate school vouchers. Being the smartass I am, I started off with a simple premise: both public and private schools serve the same public good, that being a well-educated population. From there, I asked why there is such an uproar over public funds going to private schools via vouchers when they serve the public good I referenced earlier.
To date, I have yet to receive anything resembling a real attempt to answer the question. Oh, I was called “misinformed” by someone promising (and failing) to deliver facts to counter my viewpoint, told I needed to volunteer at a public school to really understand what’s going on (after citing friends and family who are currently teaching, as well as linking to an article showing other public school teachers saying what I was saying), and told “you just want to argue.” But still no answer.
This is the real problem behind the Left’s “public good” argument, whether it be for public education, gun control, or any other Leftist idea they want to promote. Their solutions only go one way, and it’s always the way that favors the Left’s ideological ends. In the situation I experienced, the only way to fix public schools was whatever the Leftists said was the right answer. Which, as it turns out, is exactly the same thing we’ve been doing for decades to a steadily declining standard of education.
Which explains why the Leftists I encountered couldn’t answer the question I posed. If the true goal of public and private schools is to produce well-educated students, there is no logical conclusion where only public schools should get public money. But the Left can’t admit that because it would mean their entire premise of “public funds should stay in public schools” is based on discrimination.
Or should I say bigotry?
One of the big problems the Left has with private schools is how many of those schools have religious ties. They love to cite the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment as justification to deny public funds to private schools, but it’s a real stretch to equate public school funding with a law. I mean, unless there’s a public school that has a seat in Congress, it’s pretty much a non-issue. The real issue the Left has with these schools (and only a few openly admit) is the possibility students would be indoctrinated. And Leftists think that’s their job!
More to the point, the Left hates any entity that offers an alternative to government as the sole provider of everything. Which, if you really think about it (and I have because I get bored easily), is a religion of sorts, but…okay, let’s not go too far down this rabbit hole of utter hypocrisy. Let’s just say the Left’s religion includes the holy doctrine of…wait for it…the public good. And their solution? More of the shit that’s failed before, just with a bigger price tag.
That’s where I diverge from the public school fans in the Facebook thread I was on. They say they want public schools to be funded for the public good, but they don’t want to address the problems even public school teachers are seeing today. To them, the funding of public schools is a greater public good than producing a well-educated population.
Which means nothing will get done, but we’ll still be paying for subpar service. If this were a company or a restaurant, we could go elsewhere.
Oh, wait. We can! As public schools continue to see a decline in enrollment, private schools are seeing an increase. No longer are parents subject to the slavery of the public school monopoly, which threatens the pipeline of future Leftists. And because private schools depend on financial donations from donors, they have a vested interest in maintaining and improving educational standards. And that, boys and girls, tends to lead to better results. With better results, these evil private schools are closer to fulfilling the public good public school advocates say they want.
That’s why Leftists are so intent to “prove” public schools are superior to private schools. If parents actually see public schools are shitholes that make Detroit look like Paris in springtime, they are going to demand answers and start looking for alternatives. And thanks to people like LibsofTikTok, we’re getting to see the absolute freaks getting into education and what they’re teaching. Spoiler Alert: the three Rs ain’t too high on the list, but you damn well better learn the teacher’s pronouns!
And somehow public school advocates don’t seem to see this as a problem, but as supporting the public good. The pubic good, maybe, but not the public good.
So, we’re left with the question in the title: how good is the public good? When Leftists define it, not very. When people who actually care about results over politics define it, well it may not be the best, but it’s a damn sight better than the bullshit the Left tells us is the public good.
Why Can’t Johnny…You Know…Do The Thing?
As frequent readers of my posts can attest, I have a lot of criticisms of the current state of public education. Between substandard curricula that emphasize ideological indoctrination over fundamental knowledge and the quality of teachers declining faster than a dip on the tallest roller coaster ever, there is what the military would call a “target-rich environment.”
But for those who put in the work to educate children, they have another problem: children who aren’t ready to learn. Late last year, a 7th grade teacher went viral due to a video where he said many of his students had “4th grade skills” as he put it. The scary thing? This is not unique to this one teacher. After his TikTok video was posted, other teachers began posting similar horror stories about how unprepared public school students are going into higher and higher grade levels.
Part of this is due to politics, surprise surprise. Democrats and Republicans alike have advanced stupid laws with the stated purpose of improving public education, but that have made it harder for students to succeed in meaningful ways. There are two laws in particular within the past 25 years that have made this educational Hellscape possible: No Child Left Behind, and the Every Student Succeeds Act. The two laws are similar in many ways, but they also share the fact they don’t work.
That’s because they’re not intended to work on any significant level. One of my Immutable Truths is “Government is not in the problem-solving business,” mainly because there’s too much money and power to be gained by continuing the chaos. With public education, though, there’s much more damage done by continuing the status quo. Yet, to change things would require both sides to give up on their ultimate goal: to keep children as dumb as humanly possible so they can be better controlled.
Sorry. Got a little dark there.
But if you think about it, both sides of the aisle have a vested interest in keeping generations of people subservient to their side, whether it be through promised funding for pet causes or convincing their followers that non-followers are the scum of the Earth. The current environment in America makes the Hatfields and McCoys look like a water balloon fight, and the battle over public education (and what version of the curricula is being shoved down kids’ throats) isn’t helping matters.
So, this leads to a vital question: where are the parents? Welllllll…that’s a bit more complicated thanks to social media, ego, and general thoughtlessness. Think about the “Karens” and “Kevins” you may run into at the supermarket, restaurants, or well-known stores like WalMart and Target. Now, consider these folks are procreating or have procreated. In that kind of entitled environment, is it any wonder our kids are more screwed up and entitled than ever?
Not that society has done anything to discourage it, mind you. Today you’re more likely to find someone who is still playing Farmville than you are to find someone who isn’t completely obsessed with themselves. Social media and traditional media alike have made it all the rage to be the center of your universe, and anyone who tries to steal your sunshine is just a “hater.” The thing is not everyone can be in the spotlight at the same time, and the more you think you deserve it more than anyone else, the less you stay connected to reality and humanity.
So…what do you think happens when every child is amazing (just ask their parents) and can’t ever fail? You have teachers getting burnt out, frustrated, and having to vent about how unprepared students are these days.
The scary thing? They’re not wrong.
The even scarier thing? It’s been going on for decades.
Even as far back as my public school days, I could tell something was different from when my two older brothers were in school. It was almost as though the standards were starting to get looser and it was taking longer to catch up from the end of the previous school year. And compared to what my brothers had to learn, I got off easy, as they got off easy as compared to what our parents had to learn.
And now we have 7th graders who don’t even know basic math. But don’t you dare hold them back or suggest they need to study more or else their parents will ream you up and down with a rototiller. We’ve gotten to the point we’re passing underperforming students year after year because we’re more concerned with their feelings than we are about whether they’ve learned anything.
And who gets blamed if the students aren’t learning? That’s right. It’s the teachers, and in some cases it’s valid. At some point, even the most passionate teacher reaches the point of don’t give a damn anymore and tries to coast until retirement. But it’s the passionate ones we need to support because they do give a damn.
I remember the good and the bad teachers I’ve had because they’ve had an impact on my life, albeit for different reasons. I may not know a thing about trigonometry, but I wouldn’t be as logically minded without the teachers who took the time to work with me on algebra. I may not have cared about what the Gross National Product of Paraguay was, but I wouldn’t have as deep an appreciation for different cultures without spending time in social studies class. And I wouldn’t be as prolific or as good (relatively speaking) a writer if I hadn’t had teachers encourage me to appreciate the English language like I do.
And, yes, these were all public school teachers whose investment in my life I can never repay.
The key to successful students begins at home. Create an environment where knowledge is encouraged, passions are permitted to grow, and parents are involved and invested in preparing the next generation to be lifelong learners. Your children will inevitably be reflections of you, and if I may be so bold, too many are poor reflections. You gotta get in there and get your hands dirty. Learn alongside your children by taking an interest in what they’re doing. Get inside their heads and find something you can do together. Don’t just shove them out the door and expect teachers to do it for you.
As far as the teachers are concerned, I have the utmost respect for your profession, but you still have some work to do to weed out the bad ones and elevate the good ones. Remember, these are the people who will be running things in a couple of decades, so we might need to make sure they have the tools they need to be successful.
Now, for the political class. Get out of public education, at least on the federal level. You can set all the standards, give students as many tests, and pass them from grade to grade as frequently as you want, but if you’re best efforts don’t make conditions better, it’s time you let the states take up the cause. After all, they are a lot closer to the touch points than any bureaucrat in Washington, DC, could ever be. Let the states handle the practical side of education for a change.
Then maybe, just maybe, the students of tomorrow won’t have to graduate high school without knowing what a circle is.
A Wolf in Sheep(skin)’s Clothing?
Leftists have been known to…exaggerate situations that directly affect their grift…I mean policy decisions. But sometimes they get one right. Granted, it’s usually rarer than how I like my steak, but it does happen.
Recently, House Republicans introduced the Parents Bill of Rights Act designed to help parents of public school students to exercise more oversight over curricula and offer opportunities to provide feedback. Although this proposal has garnered praise from former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and damnation from Leftist asshats Aaron Rupar and Jonathan Capehart, the bill is likely to fail in the Senate because that’s where ideas go to get turned into expensive boondoggles these days.
For all the great intentions the Parents Bill of Rights Act has, there is a road to Hell we need to traverse before we throw support behind the bill.
First, let’s start with what the Left got right…I mean correct about the proposal. A tweet in response to Secretary Pompeo’s original tweet points out the inherent problem with the current public education system: a lack of parental participation. Usually, it’s because the parents complaining about it are too busy working, but it’s hard to argue the point. Parental involvement in a child’s education should start in the home, and not just for homeschooled kids, either!
It’s easy to pawn off the responsibilities due to anything from time constraints to not really wanting to do them, but if you’re complaining now that a book promoting gay sex under the guise of “education,” you’ve identified a problem: you weren’t paying attention to when this shit was being put into schools. And given the number of freaks out there teaching children these days (as can be found on the Libs of TikTok Twitter account), you might want to make the time to get involved.
Of course, we can trust our government to do the right thing. I mean, it’s not like there’s a proven track record of the government fucking up something like public education, right? But, at least with the government involved, it won’t wind up like, oh I don’t know, a train accident in Ohio.
If you believe that, I have a great deal on some FTX for ya!
Anyway, the problems being “addressed” by this legislation continue the cycle of big government involvement in something that really isn’t the federal government’s business in the first place. Or at least it wasn’t until the Department of Education was founded. Nowadays, you can’t seem to send Bobby and Cindy to public school without having the DOE having its fingers in it, which is a Brady Bunch of bullshit.
And, as much as it pains me to say it, the Parents Bill of Rights Act only continues that trend. Regardless of how you feel about what’s going on in public schools today, passing legislation to do something we can and should be doing for ourselves isn’t going to end well.
Politicians in general are always trying to find ways to carve out exceptions or use the existing system to advance ideological goals, even if it means warping the original intent of the legislation. All it takes is a swing in one direction or another and before you can say “detention” you lose more of your freedoms.
And, no, the fact this is a Republican-lead bill doesn’t make it any better. A freedom removed is damn hard to get back, regardless of which major party took it away in the first place. Just ask gun owners about that.
And don’t expect any help from the Left on this. They have a vested interest in keeping the status quo the way it is right now. Graduates may not be able to function in any meaningful way, but at least they’ll know their fee-fees are valued. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear it was almost like the Left wants people to be dumber than Puddin’ Head Joe after a NyQuil binge because then it would be easier to make them do stupid and dangerous stuff without questioning it…oh, wait…
Say, that reminds me, I’m due for my 498th COVID booster. I’m sure it will work this time and without horrible side effects!
Seriously, though, putting government in charge of responsibilities we should be taking on rarely ends well and only perpetuates the current system, which sucks out loud.
But let’s blue sky this idea. Let’s say by some miracle/deal with the Devil/funky AI algorithm/glitch in the Matrix the Parental Bill of Rights Act gets passed. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be followed, especially by those who have a vested interest in keeping people stupid and, thus, dependent on government. All it takes is a different politician of a different political persuasion to roll everything back, putting us at Square One all over again, but with more government intervention.
Fucking brilliant!
Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week
As hard as it may be to believe, I try to vary my subject matter for the Leftist Lexicon because I owe it to you, the readers. I mean, there are only so many times I can say “Joe Biden fucked up” before it gets stale and you start looking for other content. That’s why I stopped paying attention to a lot of media: too much echo, if you know what I mean.
And speaking of echo chambers, public schools are being turned into one such chamber, thanks to generous involuntary donations from taxpayers like you. At least, that was until recently when several parents looked into what was being taught at their children’s schools and lodged complaints. In response, the Left started targeting such parents for ridicule and harassment for daring to exert what they’ve derisively called parents’ rights. Even though Joe Biden sucks more than a Dyson at the center of a black hole, we can put off that discussion for a while to focus on this issue.
parents’ rights
What the Left thinks it means – a movement by uneducated/uninformed parents designed to undermine public education and prevent progress
What it really means – a movement by parents who are taking an active interest in public education
I know being a public school teacher isn’t an easy job because I went to public school and I know what kind of fresh hell awaits each new school year. Combined with long hours, lack of gratitude for putting up with the little hellions parents send their way, the lack of pay, and bureaucratic bullshit, it’s a wonder there are still people willing to be teachers anym0re. And in the nearly 35 years since I graduated, things have only gotten worse. And I’m not just talking about teenage boys addicted to Axe Body Spray, either!
Something that hasn’t changed is the ideological leanings of most teachers. They tend to lean to the left more than a baseball player trying to predict when the other team is going to try to pick him off at first base. The thing is they’ve gotten bolder or less able (or willing) to hide those leanings. Hell, there are even teachers who post videos bragging about how they’re indoctrinating students into thinking like a Leftist. Just like Jeffrey Epstein, Leftists prefer younger targets.
Too soon?
For a number of decades, the Left has had free rein in this practice due in large part to a little legal term called in loco parentis, which means “In Crazy Parents” in Latin. Actually, it means “in place of a parent.” Under this concept, teachers act as parents while the students’ actual parents are off at work, at home, or in some cases heading out to get a pack of smokes and not returning even after three years. When used responsibly, it can reinforce parental and societal expectations about how to be a good citizen. When abused, it can create friction between parents and children in the name of ideological progress.
And Leftists have been treating in loco parentis like Ike treated Tina.
Now that actual parents are starting to look at what pretend parents are doing, there’s a King Kong sized monkey wrench in the Left’s plans. And in their usual intelligent and mature way, the Left decided the way to address the problem is to…go after the parents.
Because they’re that fucking brilliant. And by brilliant, I mean stupid.
But it’s all in line with Leftist thinking. There are a couple of ideas at work here. First, the Left feels everyone should be a ward of the State in one form or another. Anything the Left can make mandatory under the watchful eye of the State (i.e. them), the better it is for them, so they strive to make everything possible a function of the government. You know, like…oh I don’t know…public education.
As a result of this, it feeds into another Leftist idea: they are the smartest people in any room. That means, surprise surprise, they think they know what’s best for us. And anyone who doesn’t agree with them is automatically stupidheaded assfaces, which means the stupidheaded assfaces are fair game for ridicule, derision, and all around dickish behavior. It also opens up the Left’s playbook to rely on a logical fallacy called appeal to authority. Basically, it’s “because X said so” with X being anyone the Left thinks is an expert on the subject matter at hand. In this case, teachers.
This is where the Left gets it exactly wrong. Parents may not have the educational pedigree of a teacher, but they do still teach. In fact, for the first 3-5 years of a child’s life, it’s the parents who lay the groundwork for teachers to do their jobs. Assuming teachers will do a better job than parents is a fool’s errand because a) kids will always remember what their parents teach them, and b) a lot of today’s teachers suck ass. And unfortunately I can only vouch for about 85% of teachers taking that figuratively.
Therein lies the issue. Teachers and parents have to work together to get the best outcomes for the students. When there is friction, like, say…oh I don’t know…calling parents’ rights racist and ignorant…the end result isn’t good for anyone, least of all the students. That’s where the Left goes astray on this issue. Instead of welcoming parents as they take an active interest in their children’s education, the Left wants to keep curricula hidden behind a bureaucratic barrier so parents can’t find out what their children are learning, if anything at all.
Now, here’s where the Left’s educational plans backfire. Without transparency, Leftist parents won’t know what their children are learning and, thus, can’t supplement that learning with in-home lessons. And as with most families, what you learn in the home is often more powerful than what you learn in the classroom.
The Left can’t accept parents’ rights as legitimate because it permits people other than them to have a say in a lesson plan. When your future relies heavily on recruiting young ones, excluding the parents makes it tougher to accomplish that goal. So, great going, Leftists!
As for the parents on the forefront of the parents’ rights movement, make sure you’re ready to fight for a while. Not only will the Left not give ground easily, but if your entire fight is limited to schools not teaching one subject like CRT, you’re going to ultimately give up your children to the Leftist machine. Yes, I’m talking about making an active investment in your children beyond buying them phones and video games. Taking interest in your children’s studies helps to form bonds that transcend the classroom and you might even learn a thing or to in the process. That’s how Common Core “math” got uncovered, after all.
I know parents’ rights aren’t as sexy a topic as saying Joe Biden is a fuck-up, but they’re monumentally important nonetheless. If you believe the children are our future, it’s up to you to be a good role model and fighter for the best education they can get.
Either that or you’re listening to too much Whitney Houston.