The Attack on Public Education

It's been a while. Every once in a while I get an email that seems like a personal antidote, but turns out to be propaganda.

Here's the email:

Subject: Sad, Funny and True
Last week I purchased a burger and fries at McDonalds for $3.58.
The counter girl took my $4.00 and I pulled 8 cents
from my pocket and gave it to her. She stood there,
holding the nickel and 3 pennies. While looking at the
screen on her register, I sensed her discomfort and
tried to tell her to just give me two quarters, but
she hailed the manager for help. While he tried to
explain the tranasaction to her, she stood there and cried.
Why do I tell you this?
Because of the evolution in teaching math since the 1950s:

Teaching Math In 1950
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His
cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his
profit?

Teaching Math In 1960
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His
cost of produ! ction is 4/5 of the price, or $80.
What is his profit?

Teaching Math In 1970
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His
cost of production is $80. Did he make a profit?

Teaching Math In 1980
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His
cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20 Your
assignment: Underline the number 20
.
Teaching Math In 1990
A logger cu! ts down a beautiful forest because he is
selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the
habitat of animals or the preservation of our
woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit of
$20. What do you think of this way of making a living?
Topic for class participation after answering the
question: How did the birds and
squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? (There are no wrong
answers.)

Teaching Math In 2005
! Un ranchero vende una carretera de madera para
$100. El cuesto de la produccion era $80. Cuantos
tortillas se puede comprar?

Go ahead. Laugh. Now consider the racist overtones of the above.

Is the story about the poor McDonald's clerk true? I doubt it. It reads like a set-up for that crafty little joke.

Not only does the email recall the Good 'ol Days of education ("In my days, I walked through 50 miles of blizzards and ten feet of snow to a one room schoolhouse"), but it offers a nice little dig at those crazy tree-huggers and immigrant-loving liberals who don’t see a need to wall up our borders.

This is right-wing claptrap and I can smell it a mile away. Bush’s poll numbers stink, the Republicans are riddled with bad money from DeLay and Abrahmoff, and daily bad news about the Iraq War just won’t get off the front page. The think tanks don’t shut down though do they? Instead, they look for wedge issues that they can use to attract fearful middle class voters.: “Christmas is under attack!” “We must control the borders!” “Public education stinks!”

Recently a family member sent this email to my wife, saying “Funny,” and “How True!” My response to her was to look before you laugh and to consider your sources. That’s good advice for us all.

I’m a Democrat. I’m in a union. I am a public school teacher. I am a liberal. So if you are still interested, instead of just slyly attacking public education, I have offered a short list of three problems and fixes when it comes to public education.

Considering our size (300 million Americans) and efforts (the greatest percentage of people with college credit than ever before), I’d say that overall, American public schools do an amazing job. We can always do better. Here’s my big three:
1) Too Many White Teachers: Our profession lacks diversity to offer role models and a sense of identity to multicultural students. Solution: Affirmative Action, intense recruitment, free or heavily endowed education, and higher pay for teachers of color.
2) Inequity: The U.S. Supreme Court continues to hold that local communities have a right to provide substantial funding for public education -- this all but guarantees that wealthy communities will always have better schools. Solution: Treat public education like the NFL (National Football League) and share the wealth, and step up Federal funding across the board to increase the number of teachers (class size is a huge problem), to increase access to technology, and to provide multi-lingual education for the increasing need in this area (Deal with it folks – we are only going to get more multicultural as a nation).
3) Stop Attacking Public Schools: Bush's poll numbers smell afoul to his supporters and so do his policies for the rest of us. The conservative think tanks have come up with the strategy of using public education as a wedge issue to get people mad at a traditional liberal strong hold. This allows them to push toward privatization - Yippee, turn schools into corporations so that rich white Republicans have another source of exploitation and income. Solution: "Bravo!" to the Florida Supreme Court for telling Jeb Bush that the State of Florida can't absolve itself from public education through vouchers.