It was so clear after a Los Angeles mother gave an interview that aired on a cable news network: She completely understood the problem with schools. She knew the schools needed more money. She understood that charter schools drained public money out of schools. The mother supported the teachers. However, when asked if she supported a modest increase in her taxes, she balked. "Our taxes in California are already high," she responded.
It was not hard to empathize with this woman. California is a high-tax state. Asking the middle class to pony up for everything gets old—but most importantly, it is unfair.
The problem is that we do not look at education holistically. Funding for education in states like California and Texas depends partially on property taxes, above and beyond money from the general fund. This is a recipe for inequality in education, a disaster that is readily apparent. Rich districts and rich areas tend to have good schools with good teachers, while poor areas have dilapidated schools, often staffed with less-equipped teachers.
Corporate-controlled politicians purposely starve government to create a condition of failure. Why? It allows their wealthy benefactors to play the savior role. In this case, private and charter schools funded by the taxpayers step in to do the job they claim the public sector failed at.
These corporations (read: the plutocracy) want the commoditization of our most precious assets—our kids. Our children are the gift that keeps on giving. They are an infinitely renewable source of revenue.
Here is an absolute statement: It is impossible for the private sector to be more efficient in certain sectors of our economy. The fiduciary responsibility for executives of corporations is to make a profit for shareholders. In practice, these executives expect large compensation for said feat. As such, in areas like education and health care, the profits and high salaries of executives are an expense we pay with our taxes, higher premiums, or high fees.
So when charter schools or private schools come into the fold, they must use underhanded behaviors to give a semblance of being more efficient. And who pays the price for that? Teachers are paid less. They cherry-pick students, leaving the difficult ones in the public system. This further strains that system, even as the charter and private schools extract taxes from us all.
The theory of supply-side economics not only fails theoretically, but it has also failed in practice. Many in the media continue to give it plausibility. Market-based health care continues to kill thousands, as many go without. Charter schools perform worse than public schools in the aggregate.
There are areas where the private sector is an unmitigated failure. Basic mathematical theory should have been enough to point out that the private sector has no business in these domains.
The expectation is that Americans forget basic math. The truth is that many have been indoctrinated into not applying the principles of math in many areas of our economy. In doing so, we have allowed an elite class to define a false narrative that we accept on faith.
The solution is not difficult at all. But it does require a healthy dose of reprogramming of a large segment of our population who have been coerced by a system that commoditizes and capitalizes on every aspect of our lives.
A few years ago I was one of the executive producers of a Move to Amend documentary titled Legalize Democracy, where we went into detail over the complete corporate takeover of our lives. The words of Ashley, who spoke about her internal desperation, were prescient. When analyzing her every move, they were driven directly or indirectly by the corporate boot on our necks.
Our willful gullibility to corporate-induced indoctrination is destroying our schools. The attack on public schools through privatization signals the fall of another sector within our commons. If we do not wake up, we will lose it all.