How to Destroy Public Schools

I love public schools and deeply believe they are the basis of a continual functioning democracy. If we are unable to educate every child in this nation we should simply abandon democracy and turn the country over to the plutocrats, forsake all notions of equity and equality, and simply announce that by birthright or luck if you end up making more than say $300,000 per year you get to rule. The rest of us are ignorant peasants. (Though I wonder if the plutocrats have really thought through what life would be like without a quality workforce, open economy and functioning middle class around them, but that is fodder for future posts.) It is not our army or navy that keep us free, it is our knowledge, our wisdom, and our equity that keep us free. If we were uneducated, we would not go to war unless we were attacked, and even then we would lose to more advanced technologies because we were uneducated. To put it simply, if you want to be a red-blooded American patriot then know that the roots of a sustainable democracy lie deep in the halls and classrooms of public education.


Hence, plotting to undermine, destroy, hamper or diminish our public school system should be, in my not so humble opinion, treated as tantamount to terrorist plotting. Given that assumption, I find myself surrounded by terrorists and I am not quite sure what to do about it. Many of these terrorists are held in high esteem by their fellow citizens: Rhee, Duncan, Perry, Gates, Koch, Broad, entire state legislatures, etc. Do not be fooled by their public stature. They seek to undermine American public education. These cells are interconnected and are now operating out in the open. Worse, they are winning a war of attrition. Their tactics vary, but they share one common goal. If you want to destroy public education it must be subtly attacked from the inside, not the outside, and the attack must be focused on one of the core features of a public school. Safety. Freedom from fear. Security.

Unless they have absolutely no means, parents will not send their children to a school they perceive to be dangerous. We can debate the merits of the accountability metrics all day and whether the results mean anything in terms of learning or not, but a parent will first and foremost demand that their child feel safe at school. The anti-bullying outcry in this country has touched that nerve. We will not tolerate bullies in our schools. We will not tolerate weapons in our schools. We will not tolerate drugs in our schools. We will not tolerate gang-related activities in our schools. We first and foremost must keep our children safe. Once safe, they can learn. When a tornado threatens, or a jet flies into a building in New York City, parents rush to the school during the day to get their kids to keep them safe. When the standardized test scores come out, no such emergency-like withdrawal by parents occurs. “Oh my! My child failed to achieve mastery on the state math test! I need to leave work and head to school to make sure he is OK.” Not gonna happen.

OK, so if I want to destroy public schools, undermine them, shake loose their supporters and diminish the financial support, how can I strike fear in the very institutions designed first and foremost to be safe? I cannot threaten children. That most likely will reveal my true motives and somehow cast me as an evil person, a Scrooge, a terrorist, a monster. I cannot afford that role. What I can do is structure the political environment so that the adults in the school, the very ones who are charged with providing a safe and secure place for children, do not feel safe and secure themselves. I can scare the bejezuz out of teachers, principals and superintendents. I can bully them! If the adults are scared, they will be severely handicapped when tasked with providing a nurturing, caring learning environment for kids. In fact, the adult fear may be contagious. We can scare kids out of school and scare their parents out of supporting the school by scaring the employees of the school! So cool! And, we can do it under the guise of seeking to improve the school. More measures, more high stakes tests, more adult employment tied to high stakes tests. Oh wait, this is way too good. We can claim to help the school while sowing the seeds of its demise! What a plot! What a plan! We shall succeed!

And these evil doers are succeeding. They are converting one of our most sacred institutions into high stress, high fear, high pressure zones. A third grade classroom on state standardized test day feels the same as the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, just much quieter.

Teachers are stressed and scared. Principals are stressed and scared. Superintendents have always been stressed and scared, but now they are close to psychotic. Some have even gone over to the dark side and joined a terrorist cell themselves, clear evidence the terrorists are slowly winning. The metrics we use to judge schools and judge teachers advocated by those who would undo public schools have created one of the scariest places on earth: a building wherein 10 year-olds determine the fate of professional adults using #2 pencils and bubble sheets.

I’m old. I have led a full life. I loved my years in public education, devoted to children, keeping them safe, teaching them what they need to know. The current generation of educators does not know what such a profession feels like. They do not know what it means to drive to work, not even thinking about job security  or test scores, but thinking about their kids and how to help and what to plan and what to do. When you are frightened and stressed, to whom do you turn? Someone calm, wise, secure and caring. Children now can find few of these attributes in the adults around them at school. We are driving such people out of public schools and we must, we absolutely must, stop.

Want a safe school? Keep the adults therein safe from political bullying.