Want democracy? Then commit to American public schools.
We all know that one of the strategies to get rid of democracy is for generations to be exposed to corporate FUD about schools. Chip away at public trust and confidence.
But don't believe the headlines and hype. Public schools are one of America's last standing democratic institutions.
1. Know what public schools are? The Human Development Industry of the 3rd largest country on the planet.
Public schools are the only industry with a Return On Investment — ROI — of 7:1 -- for every dollar spent, ALL of America sees a $7 return on value. No other industry gives that return on investment.
And that's just using market terminology.
What follows is terminology
American public education has produced our presidents, astronauts, scientists, mathematicians, architects, skilled workers, engineers, artists, film makers, musicians and university leaders.
Good schools develop and prioritize
-- students' minds have an atmosphere of inclusion and race, class, gender and socioeconomic diversity
-- being AN authority over being IN authority.
-- thinking applied to doing and students' activities,
-- training in focus and perceptions,
-- knowing detail from concept,
-- supporting concept with detail
-- accurate reporting,
-- differentiating fact from opinion,
-- listening and speaking, private and public
-- differentiating generalizing, stereotyping, and prejudice
-- science concepts and common applications,
-- history with original documents study,
-- original, unabridged written works in literature
-- computer hardware, software, Internet research for authoritative sources
-- STEM curricula
Good schools…
— respect and use professional knowledge of their teachers
-- teach music, teach art
-- have art project rooms computer labs, libraries,
-- healthy food (juices, veggies, federally funded meals),
-- well-monitored playgrounds that break up fights and counsel combatants to seek causes of their differences, reconcile with apologies and make agreements on how to get along.
In these schools, adults and students are always interacting together in public areas.
The above basics are only the beginning.
The next two most important features of a good school are the professional classroom personnel and main office principal's instructional leadership and safety systems.
A good school gives transparent information profiles on its teachers' training background. A bad school won't. Good schools have open, honest principals who welcome parents; bad schools have manipulative principals who favor a select group of parents.
Human development is THE single greatest asset to any country. Because humans are the country's greatest asset. All our NATO and other Western allies know this.
2. Every public high school once had the arts, vocational training, civics, home economics, full range of gymnastics and sports, computer labs and after school projects. Why? Because parents and leaders thought children were worth it!
When did that attitude disappear? It’s a history lesson.
Read Jonathan Kozol’s [iShame of The Nation] for the full story.
But some Americans still have that education system.
Know who they are?
America’s private preparatory schools!
The kids of the rich!
For decades, the rich have lied to Americans about the worth of public education.
And now too many everyday Americans parrot their self serving bad news headlines that stigmatize the nation's public schools by buying the big lie that the worst represent the rest.
You don't have to complain about anything in the classroom. College educated professionals are doing a good job, although it could be better if class size went down to 12 students per teacher, the way it is in private prep schools.
Instead, everyone should complain about why states and their schools districts can still afford to pay six-figure salaries to hundreds of bureaucrats who wouldn't be caught dead in a classroom.
THEN show better tax spending priorities. Right now, too many Americans buy the richies' hype and sound like a cheap critics who don't care about engaging in how their taxes get spent, but only that they're taxed.
3. If you want a good future for descendants, don't diss our children's public educations conditions OR their teachers. Neither one made "the problem," even if they suffer from it. Don’t use our kids’ teachers as scapegoats when you know who really is to blame for what they and our kids endure.
Destabilize teachers' standing as committed professionals for a community, and you destabilize your children's learning conditions.
Teachers are the scholars of their communities.
4. No study in the last century has yet to disprove a century of studies that show the top three predictors of student achievement:
First -- socioeconomic status of students’ parents.
Second -- the Teacher.
Three -- Time on Task.
5. Want good teachers, but don't want to have to pay? Or offer teachers tenure? Did the rich -- or homeschoolers -- tell you that you could get something for nothing? In so many words, yes. they. did.
Want to kick scholars of our communities out as soon as some little preciouses complain? Did people forget the American work ethic that claims that the highest achievements come with focused, systematic study, effort and yes, sometimes a bit of sacrifice by the family?
Did the rich reveal to you and the public that they themselves don't consider any amount too much to spend on THEIR kids? That THEY pay their teachers top dollar? That they LUV tenure?
Why their schools are so expensive: You. Get. What. You. Pay. For.
No? Know why richies don't tell the public? They don't want competition for the mediocre snowflakes they have -- the Trumps, Mercers, Thiels or other rich doofuses of the world.
6. Knock off condescension toward fellow citizens who are teaching professionals. Tenured professionals -- like the seniority status of legal and medical professions that do NOT return your investment at 7:1. Do they. Nope, they don't.
Most important to remember, however, is that market values do not apply to human development of a nation's children. We can do better to knock off the market values talk about to the last standing Jeffersonian, democratizing institution of human development for this country.
If the public doesn't think things through for the benefit of America's kids, but just mostly for themselves, then neither they nor you can ever say you're dedicated to human development, or this country's most valuable asset.
Our international competitors know all this. Lies about public education are a big part how the rich want us to buy their lies and cut ourselves out of their game.
How do we beat them at their game? First by changing public school funding and then changing its structure. I have a plan, though it has to be preceded by more trifecta wins like those in 2020.
The problem is structural. The problem is that Washington doesn't run education in America. 50 different statehouses do. 50 differently budgeted education budgets, different teacher training at 1,206 schools, colleges and departments of education, in 78% of all universities and colleges.
The constitution of the 3rd largest country in the world does not guarantee education as a fundamental right. And it shows.
Funding will have to be re-vamped either by constitutional amendment or one statehouse at a time. Given the political bullshit going on in red statehouses, major Democratic GOTV goals are to win more trifectas of the MI model.
When millions knock off their class war side-taking, and thus their ignorant hate of their fellow American teaching professionals, they can have the nice things that public schools produce.
No amount of money is wasted on good public schools. It's time that Democrats here commit to what richies have had for hundreds of years. Don't let them bamboozle you. No group in America -- gender, race, socioeconomic class, teacher, schools -- should be defined by the worst members in it.
You want democracy? Then fight for public schools, one of the last standing democratic institutions in America.
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Welcome! Thanks for sharing your teaching situation. 
I LOVE New Mexico and have been to Albuquerque at least four times. 
Good luck and skill with your work! I was a public high school substitute for a year in Chicago before I was assigned. I also worked one year in a suburban high school before my 34 years in 98% Black community high schools.
I and my three children are products of public schools. Two are IT professionals, one with Palo Alto Securities out of San Jose; the youngest runs his own IT business in Silver City, is on the city council, and is co-chair of his county's Democratic Committee. My oldest is a real estate broker and XRP/Bitcoin investor. They're all successful on their own and society's terms.
Last edited Mon Apr 10, 2023, 06:16 PM - Edit history (1)
I can't imagine teachers or school boards putting up with the MAGA shitheads who are screaming about whatever they heard on Tucker Carlson last night. And no way in hell am I going to let the dumbest person who's ever been elected to Congress try to end the Department of Education. No fucking way. 
