WHY FUNDING PUBLIC SCHOOLS WITH PRIVATE MONEY IS A SCARY IDEA

I’m feeling an ominous wind about the proliferating for-profit intrusions into public education.

With schools hurting bad across the country and state revenues dropping like stones, the supposed heroes riding into the arena are private-sector companies and ideologues with agendas. Actually, I agree with some of those ideologues – like Bill and Melinda Gates. But then there are others I want to run from, like a Baptist church in a Florida town that sees its recent donation to a local school as a ticket—bought and paid for—to recruit students’ parents to Jesus. What happened to church and state?

So the best policy would be to keep everyone and anyone with a political or personal or religious or moneymaking agenda out of the way. You can’t vote for Bill Gates, whether or not you want to. But you can vote in or sweep out your local school board, state legislators, US Senators and so on. Let’s not trade our voice or citizen power for a few easy dollars while times are hard.

I believe we’re on the bleeding edge here. The supreme thing that maintains democracy in the U.S. is a free and uncompromised quality education for all kids. I know the present system is not working. I know many teachers are bad apples and many more are complacent and not performing well. I know that money and resources stream toward affluent communities and millions of kids and families are underserved. I don’t have the answers to how to fix that.

But calling in the Price Is Right crowd is not the answer.

The generations after us are at risk. We need to fight for public education. Maybe we need to move our priorities around and funnel some money from the defense department or from the millions going to test homeland security technology that doesn’t work.

Public education defines and distinguishes America. Let’s not sell it out.