Public Education: LIHOP or MIHOP?

For newbies, LIHOP and MIHOP are acronyms for "Let It Happen On Purpose" and "Made It Happen On Purpose," as applied to Republicans and 9/11. Similar conspiracy theories could land should be applied to public education: Is the establishment (or perhaps the public) letting it die by simply refusing to fix the problems, or is some shadowy organization deliberately ruining our public schools?

I came to the latter conclusion a few years ago. Many teachers and parents have been struck by the utter stupidity in public education. School board members and teachers unions are amazingly clueless about education, as are the corporations that claim to care about education. Teachers unions are more likely to stab teachers in the back than help them, and school boards have become little more than prostitutes employed by corporate pimps.

But WHY? Why would corporations or the government want to ruin education? And how could they possibly do such a thing without igniting a public backlash?

There are alarmingly few people who are speaking the truth about public education. One of the chosen few is Noam Chomsky, who wrote, "There is a campaign under way to essentially destroy the public education system along with every aspect of human life and attitudes and thought that involve social solidarity. It's being done in all sorts of ways. One is simply by underfunding. So, if you can make the public schools really rotten, people will look for an alternative. Any service that's going to be privatized, the first thing you do is make it malfunction so people can say, " We want to get rid of it. It's not running. Let's give it to Lockheed." (The Progressive magazine, September 1999, p37)

That's pretty much the conclusion I came to. But it gets better.

Suppose corporations didn't have to wait for official privatization or school choice. Suppose they could start exploiting children right now?

That's exactly what they're doing. Public schools have been privatized behind our backs! Clueless liberals foolishly warn against criticizing public education, lest we empower our enemies - the conservative hordes. But how can you fix a problem when no one will even talk about it?

Thus, public schools can be likened to forts inhabited by liberal termites and circled by conservative wolves. As the wolves try to break in and hang the 10 Commandments on the walls, the termites are busily destroying the schools from within.

If you think I'm blowing a big conspiracy theory, guess again: It's much bigger still. I've noticed that many of the fads and crises that characterize education in the U.S. are also common in Canada, the UK and Australia. Is the World Trade Organization the real power behind "education reform"?

A few months ago, The Guardian printed an article that blew me away. It said corporations are running education like a business and hope to turn it into a trillion-dollar industry. They want to essentially sell education to other nations. Most of the loot would go to the United States, with the United Kingdom right behind.

It's hard to make people understand this when public education is such an invisible scandal - not to mention partisan politics. Liberals are loathe to criticize the National Education Association, and conservatives are reluctant to criticize Bill Gates. Yet the NEA and Microsoft are two of the most sinister forces in education.

Once you open your eyes and begin to learn what's REALLY happening in our schools, it's easy to understand how certain phenomena relate to privatization.

Let's start with teacher bashing. Why would the public education priesthood not give a damn about a problem so vast?

A big clue lies in age discrimination, a relatively common complaint in education (though the media never talk about it). Think CORPORATE DOWNSIZING. If you can drive experienced teachers away, they'll be replaced by younger teachers who draw smaller salaries. New teachers are also less politically savvy and don't have tenure. Therefore, they aren't likely to make waves - or even understand what's going on. If teachers sometimes seem incredibly stupid, it might because they are.

What's the rationale behind high-stakes tests? Obviously, corporations WANT students to fail. Massive failure would give the government an excuse to take over schools, lock, stock and barrel. It has already happened in a number of cities.

High-stakes tests might also relate to our new economy. The best jobs are being outsourced, leaving U.S. citizens to choose among low-paying service jobs. There's even propaganda potential: If people criticize Bill Gates for outsourcing jobs, he can just say, "But Americans aren't qualified; just look at how many kids flunked their high-stakes tests!"

Of course, public schools also represent a gold mine for propagandists and military recruiters. Religion and the national flag were shoved into public schools shortly after the Civil War, when patriotism and nationalism were flourishing along with public education. Nearly a century later, the bastards inserted the word "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, which children were required to recite.

Now they want to put the motto IN GOD WE TRUST - first put on currency at the onset of the Civil War - in schools, along with the 10 Commandments.

If George W. Bush announced a new campaign to force religion into public schools, liberals would howl up a storm. SURPRISE: It's already here. I attended a staff meeting at an elmentary school in liberal Seattle where several teachers complained about a religious-patriotic ceremony that had been held shortly after 9-11. The principal more or less said, "Religion is now a part of our school; get used to it." No one sent notes to the parents, and most of it is NOT in the form of conspicious ceremonies - religion in public education is much more subtle and sinister.

Of course, public education isn't the only thing that's being intentionally ruined. A growing number of people subscribe to the theory that Republicans want to bankrupt America, partly because it gives them an excuse to privatize everything but the kitchen sink.

So why do so few people know the truth about education?

I've been wrestling with that for years. I think it's about 50% establishment tyranny and 50% public apathy and stupidity. The vast majority of teachers know that something stinks, but they don't know exactly what or why. Those who do know almost never speak out, either because of fear or because they think it's unprofessional. A number of teachers have warned me not to complain publicly, because doing so will "only empower our enemies."

Hmmmmm... Where have you heard that before? Doesn't it sound a lot like Republicans warning citizens not to criticize George W. Bush, lest we empower terrorists?

The big joke is that many of the most powerful conservative and liberal forces are actually in bed together. The National Education Association has a lot more in common with Bill Gates than it does teachers. I've discovered several powerful right-wingers and left-wingers working together here in Washington State.

Public education is one of America's biggest scandals. It's also the great equalizers: Liberals have little to crow about, because most of the destruction has happened on their watch.

The irony is that public schools could actually be a powerful weapon to use against George W. Bush. For starters, the Pig Class would never expect an attack from that flank. More important, if citizens can't rally behind their own children, what hope is there?

Conservatives make few bones about not wanting to support public education, and to actively supporting attempts to redistribute money out of hte public system and into the private system (vouchers).

It is too obvious to deny. I've been working in public ed for 22 years now.

Since GWB got involved, it has become clear that policies are designed to destroy schools. The worse it gets, the more likely the voting public will be to pull their kids out, send them to private, demand vouchers, turn their attention elsewhere when public ed is dismantled. It's been happening one piece at a time for a long time. NCLB etc. is supposed to destroy us; it was never about kids (or learning) at all. And of course, once everything is privatized, the churches and corporations will own education; no more input from the public needed.

Some of us knew this, and said so, while the pretender was still in Texas. Pissing in the wind. Noone listens or gives credence.

I've worked at one school where the food service had recently been privatized, and the kids ate trucked in pig slop. I've NEVER seen children throw so much food away. Many meals were so disgusting that the kids would line up and throw EVERYTHING in the garbage.

I worked with a teacher in that school who was certifiably insane. She treated everyone like dirt, and I never saw her smile ONCE - during the entire year! And this was a kindergarten class!

I tried talking to other teachers and parents about the conditions, and no one gave a damn.

I can't deny that I've come to hate America - or certain aspects of it - and this is a major reason. When a civilization has degenerated to the point that teachers and parents sh*t on their own kids, it's time to pull the plug.