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.
Tag: public schools
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.
Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week
As we get closer to the first full school year under COVID-19, it’s interesting to see the differences in whether the schools are open, closed, or on a hybrid system. Many schools are open without issues, while others are closed up tighter than Rosie O’Donnell in a size 1 dress. After the Center for Disease Control reported public schools were safe to be open, there was one tiny little problem.
Teachers’ unions.
These unions have taken it upon themselves to build a case against opening schools, citing potential health issues (i.e. contracting COVID-19) as reasons schools should remain closed. And the Left, following the science, has sided with…the teachers’ unions.
Who are these people who can defy science without the self-described Party of Science get upset? Let’s find out!
teachers’ unions
What the Left thinks it means – a union devoted to ensuring top quality teachers are represented and are free to teach to the best of their abilities
What it really means – a unaccountable union devoted to donating funds to the Left while holding no standards for the union members, no matter how much it hurts students
It’s scary to think about how much power teachers’ unions have as compared to their private sector counterparts. While a labor union can order strikes to get better wages and/or benefits, their impact is still relatively limited to a company or industry. A teachers’ union’s reach can span generations and impact millions of students and families to the point society itself is forced to change. The kindergarteners of today are going to grow up to be the Leftists of tomorrow, thanks to teachers’ unions.
Now, I’m not saying this as someone who doesn’t know the ins and outs of public schools. I am a public school graduate, and many of my family and friends have direct experience with the public school experience, and it’s getting to be where we’re all singing the same song. In my lifetime alone, I’ve watched public schools go from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance every morning to not reciting it to possibly not have any student know what it is in the first place. Sure, they’ll know all about inclusion and how to use condoms before they’re even past the “girls/boys are icky” stage, but not how to do simple math, write complete sentences, and the three branches of government. You know, stuff that’s kinda important to creating the next generation of citizens?
And the sad part is we let it go unnoticed and unchecked until it was too late to do anything about it.
That’s by design, so it’s not all our faults. Teachers’ unions love to work in plain sight while hiding their true intentions and devices. And, as you might expect, it all comes down to money. Thanks to the Department of Education (which is as useless as footnotes in a TMZ article), teachers’ unions are paid heavily to promote Leftist ideals under the guise of education. The only cost is these same unions funnel money back into Leftist coffers to support “pro-education” candidates. Once those candidates get into office, they can appropriate money to the teachers’ unions, who turn around and use those funds to…oh, I don’t know…build and maintain office buildings in Washington, DC. But I’m sure it’s for the kids…
If you believe that, I have swamp land in Arizona I’d love to sell you.
In fact, I’m hard-pressed to find anything teachers’ unions do for students, but they’ll bend over backwards to protect even the worst teachers in their ranks. Including defying the direction of the CDC. Let that roll around in your noggins for a bit. School districts are being kept shut in spite of the science we’re supposed to be following according to the Left because of a bunch of people who probably don’t teach science saying it’s too dangerous to teach because of a virus with a high-90% survival rate.
If that doesn’t tell you how much power teachers’ unions have right now, nothing will.
As much as I’d like to say there’s an easy answer to curtailing this power, I can’t. I mean, I can, but I wouldn’t be accurate in doing so. Instead, all I can suggest is to keep tabs on what is being taught in your local schools. Even if you no longer have children in school, the only way to combat indoctrination via teachers’ unions is to stay involved. Get on the school board. Keep current on what is being taught and try to combat the misinformation. Above all else, expose the bad actors whenever you can. After enough exposure, the teachers’ unions will lose their cover and will be forced to take action. After all, nothing hurts Leftists more than exposing their tactics.
And besides, how can we mock them if they aren’t exposed to be the total dipshits they are?