Which doth love America most?
Our red, white, and blue-wrapped neighbors recall King Lear’s daughters, Goneril and Regan. Eager to profess in florid terms just how much they love their fatherland while quick to abandon it for a larger inheritance than their co-citizens.
So it is with the core American institution of public education. I’ve written repeatedly about efforts to undermine public education that the founders valued as essential to their newly minted democratic republic. These days private capital feels entitled to pillage the public good for private profit. Public education being required by 48 state constitutions, it is the largest annual budget item in all 50 states:
If you think the conservative furor over critical race theory and grooming and book bans is about culture war issues, you probably think George W. Bush’s push to privatize Social Security was about getting you, Average Taxpayer, a better long-term return on your paycheck witholdings.
It’s about the money. What stands between the investor class and the hundreds of billions states spend, not-for-profit, on public education annually are teachers and school custodians and school administers and state boards of education. They’ve got to go.
Critics of the public good dress up their complaints with anodyne words like choice and accusations about the evil machinations of foul lefties who want children actually to learn about the world they will inherit. Parents threatened by changing mores are free to send their kids to religious indoctrinization academies where they will learn what to think and what not to. And I’m free not to subsidize them with my tax dollars, or I should be. Meanwhile, the vultures of finance circle, waiting to pick the bones of what’s left of public education once it’s been charterized, voucherized, and opportunity scholarshipped out of existence.
For all the culture-war hoo-ha from the loudmouth right about critical race theory, book banning, and teacher muzzling, it seems the normals are having none of it.
Hart Research and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten on Friday presented the findings of a December poll assessing opinion about public education. The normals support it strongly. Only fringe characters like Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida consider the right’s culture war the most important issues in education:
Poll participants are not interested in an agenda prioritizing political fights over things like book bans and limitations on how to teach about race and gender—an agenda favored by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy—“and instead support real solutions, like getting our kids and teachers what they need to recover and thrive,” says AFT President Randi Weingarten.
“Rather than reacting to MAGA-driven culture wars, voters overwhelmingly say they want lawmakers to get back to basics: to invest in public schools and get educators the resources they need to create safe and welcoming environments, boost academic skills and pave pathways to career, college and beyond,” Weingarten says.
“One key weakness of the culture war agenda is that voters and parents reject the idea that teachers today are pushing a ‘woke’ political agenda in the schools,” says Geoff Garin, president of Hart Research Associates, the organization that conducted the poll. “Most have high confidence in teachers. Voters see the ‘culture war’ as a distraction from what’s important and believe that politicians who are pushing these issues are doing so for their own political benefit.”
The poll was conducted from Dec. 12-17, 2022, among 1,502 registered voters nationwide, including 558 public school parents, and shows that support for and trust in public schools and teachers remains strong:
- 93 percent of respondents said improving public education is an important priority for government officials.
- 66 percent said the government spends too little on education; 69 percent want to see more spending.
- By 29 points, voters said their schools teach appropriate content, with an even greater trust in teachers.
- Voters who prioritized education supported Democrats by 8 points.
- Top education priorities for voters include providing:
- students with strong fundamental academic skills;
- opportunities for all children to succeed, including through career and technical education and greater mental health supports, as examples; and
- a safe and welcoming environment for kids to learn.
The results are lopsided against the culture war crowd:
Once again, the most vocal school critics do not represent more than an angry fringe. Clear majorities support public education and more support for it. Not that the minorities support majority rule either, a fundamental principle underlying the U.S. Constitution. They do not. See state legislatures gerrymandered to lock in minority rule for Republicans.
All of which reminds me again of Goneril and Regan, effusive in their pledges of love for their father as they angle for the largest inheritance. Once they get what they want from the old fool, their behavior proves their pledges hollow. To their fatherland’s regret. May we be wiser than Lear where our country’s future is at stake.