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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmerica gave up on truly educating all its kids. Then Jan. 6 happened. Coincidence?
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Laurence Tribe
@tribelaw
Mass public ignorance is the predictable result of inadequate elementary and secondary education. An ignorant populace is ripe for manipulation by despots. We reap what we sow.
America gave up on truly educating all its kids. Then Jan. 6 happened. Coincidence? | Will Bunch
A viral moment from Pennsylvania's court battle over school funding about kids on the McDonalds track holds a buried truth on the anniversary of Jan. 6.
inquirer.com
10:24 AM · Jan 2, 2022
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/january-6-anniversary-civics-education-in-america-20220102.html
You would never expect a weeks-long trial in Harrisburg about such an important yet super-complicated issue whether wide disparities in school funding across rural, urban, and suburban school districts in Pennsylvania violate the state constitution to create a viral moment that would rock social media.
Yet a brief exchange between a lawyer for budget-crunching GOP lawmakers in the Keystone State and a superintendent in a remote rural district in the deer-hunter country of north-central Pennsylvania did exactly that, by voicing an entire nations anxieties about how America educates its young people and much more important to what end.
Ill even go way out on a limb here to argue you can draw a straight line between the countrys collective decision hardened somewhere in the late 20th century to stop seeing education as a public good aimed at creating engaged and informed citizens but instead a pipeline for the worker drones of capitalism, and the 21st centurys civic meltdown that reached its low point nearly one year ago, in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
This lightbulb moment occurred in the middle of weeks of arduous testimony over unequal K-12 funding during the Harrisburg trial. On the witness stand was Matthew Splain, superintendent of the underfunded Otto-Eldred School District in sparsely populated McKean County and board president of the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools. His inquisitor was John Krill, a lawyer representing the states top Republican lawmaker, defending a political regime thats made Pennsylvania 45th in the nation in state support for its public schools.
*snip*
MagickMuffin
(15,942 posts)That's the plan. Make sure the populous is so dumb they will believe anything.
Then create a Charlatan/Carny-Barker to amplify the gaslighting and Presto Bingo you have a mob ready to do your bidding.
jimfields33
(15,802 posts)Our education system needs an overhaul emphasizing math and science to all students. Is it any wonder why we rank so poorly in the world with education.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/abc7news.com/amp/california-schools-drop-d-f-grades-oakland-unified-phases-out-below-c-competency-learning-mastery-based/11308550/
MagickMuffin
(15,942 posts)"Leave NO Child behind" was a really cute slogan, but it was never intended to be utilized.
jimfields33
(15,802 posts)onecaliberal
(32,861 posts)Collimator
(1,639 posts)But I never once questioned the validity of my tax dollars going to educate "somebody else's kids" in the way I have heard other people complain. I have always understood that it was about educating my future fellow citizens. Whether it's the plumber that I call to fix a leak or just the person driving a car next to me in traffic, I want these people to know different things, engage with the world around them and feel that they have a personal stake in a peaceful, stable society.
MyOwnPeace
(16,926 posts)you DO understand what education in these United States is supposed to be about. Unfortunately, RepubliQans, with concerns about 'rights' for THEIR voters and ways to get their hands on 'education' money (hello, remember Betsy DeVos?) have been actively working to destroy TRUE public education.
Dan
(3,562 posts)Brown vs Board of Education was wrongly decided.
It would appear to me that there are parallels to that decision and the current trial.
When it comes to money, poor Whites will discover that the plantation just got bigger to accommodate them.
CrispyQ
(36,464 posts)"As people do better, they start voting like Republicans - unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing." ~Karl Rove
cbabe
(3,541 posts)systematically downgraded materials year after year.
Vocabulary lists were shortened until what was 5th grade reading became 12th grade.
MyOwnPeace
(16,926 posts)'follow the money' works here: The Repukes saw a huge pile of it and wanted control of it.
Irish_Dem
(47,058 posts)Good article.
DavidDvorkin
(19,477 posts)Many of my classmates were appallingly ignorant about American history, government, society, etc. The courses were required and those kids took them, but they paid no attention or immediately forgot what they were taught.
I don't know what the root of the problem is, but I don't think it's the schools. I suspect the problem has always been with us; we're just unusually aware of it right now.
Collimator
(1,639 posts). . . woven into the fabric of American society for many, many generations. Of course, that doesn't mean that we give up on the principle that a well-rounded, solid education helps to produce more tolerant, engaged citizens.
kskiska
(27,045 posts)for a majority of students, and enabled them to get decent starting jobs at many large companies in the town where I lived. My dad had a trade school education prior to enlisting after Pearl Harbor. and becoming a B-17 pilot and POW after getting shot down over Germany. When the war ended, he briefly went back to his auto-body job until he was lucky enough to be hired at a large company in town that did government contract work. He had the title of "Engineering Aide," and worked on projects for the first moon landing, the Hubble Telescope, and equpment for spy planes.
I believe that today's college education is pretty much equivalent to past generations' high school education.