So, with much fanfare from the Controlled Opposition last Friday, President Trump's handlers had him sign another Executive Order 'dismantling' the US Department of Education. Given the disastrous state of American Education, this is probably not going to make much difference: the Department has been captured by various interest-groups ever since it was spun off from the now-defunct Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in the late 1970s.
As someone who has been active (although admittedly not recently) in school-choice and academic reform movements, one thing that has become clear is that the problem with our schools at all levels has little to do with Government. In other civilized nations which have functional school systems, education is seen as an investment in the national future. Typically, students are educated in the basics through Middle School, then they're given aptitude tests. Those who finish at the top go on to University prep, the middle group qualify for vocational school, and the lower group typically go to the labor force, often as an apprentice in a unionized job. Most therefore are prepared for life as a contributing member to a self-governing society.
In the US, the situation is much different. What most American parents actually want is place to dump their kids all day before sending them off to a diploma-mill---the purpose of which is to train them in the arts of gaming the system, going-along-to-get-along, and making influential connections that will give them a place in the system. The 'future' for most of these people is next Saturday, so naturally they resent paying for any community investment in such things.
Thus, it's fitting that a 75-year old Hollywood entertainment promoter heads the US Department of Education, and will oversee this move that supposedly will 'empower parents' which, of course, is boilerplate rhetoric because most Americans don't care one way or the other about our schools and, in actual fact, holds professional educators in utter contempt.
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Academic activism isn't going away, of course. The Department of Education will still be around to enforce the New Right's versions of Political Correctness: clamping down things like protests or educators too critical of the New World Order. The Student Loan/Pell Grant scams will continue, although the intention is to move those functions to the Small Business Administration. That agency is currently headed by former Senator Kelly Loeffler, whose domestic partner is the CEO of the New York Stock Exchange: so no doubt student debt will be enforced rigidly and the big banks will get returns on their investments even if society doesn't.
The White House spokesxhes assure us that educational policy should be left 'up to the states;' which will work out just as well as turning other social issues to the States has. Surely, we can trust Governors like Bob Ferguson, Gretchen Whitmer, Tim Walz, Gavin Newsom, etc. will run their schools much better now. Lest any True Believers want to roll their eyes and say that they don't care about 'Blue States' consider some of the morons running schools in Neocon-dominated States.
The move likewise will empower NGOs to spread their tentacles even deeper into the educational system than they already do. It will be a huge windfall for them, they can launder corporate profits through taxpayer-subsidized or tax-exempt 'nonprofits' which is really the purpose of all of this show-boating. Will the changes at the Department of Education make a bad situation worse? Probably. Will Americans care? Probably not. Schools have been in decline for decades and nobody has cared yet.
The problem is not political, it is cultural. As long as Americans keep ignoring the problem and looking towards top-down solutions and political strongmen to take over their responsibilities, the situation will continue to deteriorate much to the delight and profit of the Financial Elite.
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Interesting! It's hard to know what would fix our education system, but I think the for profit nature of it needs to go and I mean that in a cultural context. Kids go to school so they can "get a good education and make a lot of money." So now you are basically a commodity and your worth and value revolves almost exclusively around your potential to make money. There's no pleasure in learning, no spiritual development, no building character, and no collectivism. Much like you said, we're not really investing in the future.
ReplyDeleteI also think the whole nature of college needs to change. We have technology, the internet, and books to read, all for free. College isn't teaching us anything we can't learn by other means, it's really just selling us a credential.
Nothing is really going to change until public attitudes do. Historically, local control has been guarded jealously by the American people; but during the last few decades, they've largely given up interest and sought top-down solutions. You're right: it has more to do with narcissistic attitudes that see one's children as a commodity rather than a developing individual.
ReplyDeleteColleges, I think, do need a credential system; otherwise we have people like Rollo Tomassi pretending that his PUA followers verify his theories. The problem is that Academia at the college level today is deeply corrupt and for sale to the highest bidder, so it's not much better. This is another problem that people are in denial about.