The Case for Closing Public Schools…
Indefinitely
American Thinker,
by
Sarah Lilly
Original Article
Posted By: DVC,
3/5/2021 12:01:33 AM
For the past year, parents and students across the county, mostly in Democrat-run municipalities, have been experiencing excessive levels of stress due to unending school closures. Red states like Florida, Texas, and South Dakota have been open for months. Meanwhile, the teacher’s unions have a stranglehold on the public schools in Democrat states, refusing to open for a litany of absurd reasons.
Part of me sympathizes with the conservative parents who are struggling to cope with working from home and the online curriculum management of their children. (Though that sympathy does not extend to liberal parents who knowingly voted for this lunacy.) But I am struggling to understand why
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Mushroom 3/5/2021 12:15:27 AM (No. 715318)
I believe the OP has a legit stance. Now that parents have adjusted to the logistics of the Children at home, and seen what very little effect in school teachers have. Why wouldn't they opt for private or even home schooling?
Look, here is the option. Your child is schooled remotely by someone who really doesn't care anymore, In public school that the teachers refuse to participate, or Private if you are rich enough, and last home schooling. Your call.
If you already have the logistics figured out for your employment situation, why not do what is best for your kids? Perhaps there will be a way to recoup the massive school taxes you already pay....just not under the Democrat Socialist Regime
36 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
GoodDeal 3/5/2021 12:19:56 AM (No. 715320)
Close them permanently, give all students straight A’s and a diploma and a 25% pay raise to teachers unions.
16 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
RuckusTom 3/5/2021 12:50:19 AM (No. 715332)
Why not privatize all "public" schooling and give tax credits to the parents paying for it?
44 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
LC Chihuahua 3/5/2021 1:20:54 AM (No. 715344)
Face it. There are teachers out there that don't want to teach. There are students that don't want to learn or even attend school. Any student or parent serious about education should not have to deal with either. Btw, how many of those public school teachers have chosen no to put their children through public schools?
37 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
HisHandmaiden 3/5/2021 2:32:22 AM (No. 715358)
No mention of school choice for America, let alone the value of a classical Christian education, at home or classroom, taught by family or non-union teachers...
KAG
45 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Trigger2 3/5/2021 3:39:42 AM (No. 715367)
The solution is simple. Get rid of those greedy, obnoxious, self-serving teacher unions.
57 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
DCGIRL 3/5/2021 4:57:16 AM (No. 715388)
Close them down permanently and provide vouchers to families to send their children to charter schools.
48 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Rinktum 3/5/2021 6:17:49 AM (No. 715421)
The author does speak truth. However, truth be told working parents would have a hard time paying for tuition for private schools for their children. Public education is all they have. They know their kids need to be back in school and are willing to fight to get them opened up. What good is private education if you cannot afford it? Of course, parents would take advantage of the best education but most parents are just trying to provide for their families in a shrinking economy. Most are surviving paycheck to paycheck, working hard to feed and clothe their children and provide for them as best they can. It’s easy to say pull your kids out, but that is not realistic for most parents especially those with more than one child. It gets very expensive. Conservative parents who are poor know the deal with public education and they know they have to make sure their kids have the truth drilled into them. History and civics must be taught to them at home as does more importantly, their values. Many are becoming more active in their local school board meetings. They are pushing back and I admire them for that. We must advocate for our values.
We cannot throw the baby out with the bath water. We must fight for truth in curriculum and insist that values matter. I understand everyone’s concern but we have to be realistic and understand that some families struggle to make it without the burden of private education tuition. If you are a parent, get involved in your child’s education. Advocate for them. There really are more of us than there are of them.
33 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
planetgeo 3/5/2021 6:22:43 AM (No. 715422)
The vast majority of your property taxes go to public schools. The schools have been closed in most places for over a year. Have your property taxes been reduced? Why are you still sitting there and not storming your country offices demanding a refund and reduction of your property taxes?
Stop being total wimps.
47 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
NancyD 3/5/2021 6:37:54 AM (No. 715432)
Exposing the mentality of the Public school system, teachers, teachers union and school boards have been a blessing.
We've known that public school system has been broken for decades, but it has come under a microscope and exposed. Public Schools need to be shut down and a new/old method is needed to educate todays youth.
Home school and/or religious school seems to be the best solution. Decent teachers can start their own home school system, but charge tuition. Have online classes but the option to meet as a group. Something, Anything is better than the tripe that they kids get now.
23 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Krause 3/5/2021 6:39:06 AM (No. 715433)
How do you make up a lost school year? Do over?
16 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
jinx 3/5/2021 7:09:10 AM (No. 715457)
Teaching is not just learning from books. It is discipline too. That is one of the challenges of teaching in a ci
16 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
jinx 3/5/2021 7:13:08 AM (No. 715461)
Sorry. Hit the wrong button. Discipline is a real challenge in city schools. No one addresses that. I think they are waiting until the new marxist text books are written and published. The indoctrination of teachers is first. The older teachers have to go.
14 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
privateer 3/5/2021 7:13:59 AM (No. 715462)
FTA: 'In La Mesa, California, school board members called in-person learning a form of ‘white supremacist ideology’ and ‘slavery.’ ' In the ante-bellum south, teaching a black slave to read and write was a crime. How ironic these racialists are in the tradition of Simon Legree. And re: the cost of private schools. They ARE too costly for many working parents. But that is partly because now they are few and far between. If they vastly increased in number, through volume and competition tuition could be lowered, at least for some. The Elite would still have their luxury, tens of thousands of dollars a year academies. I agree that the Teachsters Union is one of the most insidious and successful branches of Global Communism.
19 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Fosterdad 3/5/2021 7:30:27 AM (No. 715470)
The author described Loudon County Virginia as "deep red". Hardly. Biden got 61% of the vote there.
11 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
udanja99 3/5/2021 7:50:09 AM (No. 715479)
Exactly correct, #15. I lived in Loudoun County (the author spelled it incorrectly) for 24 years and watched it go from solid red to royal blue. In the 1996 election Clinton lost at every single precinct in the county. 0bama won the county in both elections and Illary won it in 2016. The shift started during the Clinton era with his massive expansion of the federal government and the influx of DC bureaucrats into the area. Then the dot com era began and the county became inundated with immigrants from India and the Middle East. Finally, the unsecured borders allowed a huge influx of illegals with phony IDs who managed to vote.
I do beg to differ with #8. When our daughter was born, I quit my job to be a stay at home mom. We lived on one income for the next 15 years in very expensive Loudoun County and we made huge changes to our lifestyle so that, not only could I stay home to raise her, but we managed to send her to a private Catholic school which was 25 miles away in Maryland. It takes a lot of sacrifice but it can be done.
BTW, the National Home School Defense organization is located in Loudoun County as is Patrick Henry College which caters to home schooled children.
18 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Periwinkel 3/5/2021 8:14:07 AM (No. 715494)
I will go along with this if they promise that no teacher presently employed and no retired teachers are allowed to enter a school for the purpose of instruction. Also NO MORE TEACHERS' UNIONS!
10 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
Strike3 3/5/2021 8:32:29 AM (No. 715511)
Privatize it all, stop the property taxes, hire the competent twenty percent of teachers into private schools. If underprivileged parents don't make enough money or care that their offspring go to school, screw them, the little urchins will become criminals anyway because they have substandard parent(s). For the eight to ten grand a year that the publik schools cost us, we should be turning out Einsteins all over the place.
8 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
Speedypetey 3/5/2021 8:44:24 AM (No. 715524)
In investigative journalism news, not teleprompter readers scripts, the religious, private and charter schools have a tremendous enrollment backlog. The home schooling hasn't surged only because under the Jo Bi Deng handlers deconstruction of the nation parents are scared that if they give up onebofbtheir incomes they will need the money and will never find another job to replace it.
6 people like this.
The state of our "public schools" as social/political indoctrination centers is well known to anyone with eyes and ears. But, like the idea that there is a UNIPARTY running things in Washington, not a pitched battle between Democrats and Republicans, the idea of these schools induces a high level of cognitive dissonance. This is AMERICA! This can NOT be true!!
The Boomers traded family life for a two-earner household and virtually begged the schools and teachers to substitute parent while they worked. Their grandchildren and even great-grandchildren (Yes, we Boomers are that old now.) are reaping the results of all this. Doesn't matter how awful the education, just get a 5.0 grade point average and Mom will get you a nice school tie to wear later.
So, IF education was such an important commodity, where are the entrepreneurs who could provide such at reasonable cost? Where are the real thinkers and silo breakers taking on the "education experts", who have literally zero to show for more than a half century of new and better techniques?
Back in the halcyon Fifties, the big question was "Why can't Johnny read?" Eighty years later its the same lament. Meanwhile, taxpayers are investing around $12,000 per annum nationally in each public student - and that's for academics, not infrastructure. Not only can Johnny not read, but he can't turn a wrench anymore, either.
6 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
DebraAnn 3/5/2021 9:45:10 AM (No. 715580)
My sister in Bergen County N.J. decided against public school for her daughter early-on. She and her husband budgeted elsewhere and my niece and nephew attended the local parochial school attached to the church they attended. I never really understood why, but they weren't my children so I kept it to myself. Now I understand. Yikes!
7 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
Heil Liberals 3/5/2021 9:54:50 AM (No. 715593)
I teach at a middle school in Tennessee. We have been in session since day one in August. We have complied with all of the edicts from the "experts" in order to remain open. With a couple of exceptions, we have been in session full-time. Here are some observations of the effects of the Covid fear porn on our children.
1. Children had way too much time on devices. We have seen an uptick in all things related to explicit pornography - from 10 year-olds on up. If you thought kids were highly sexualized before, it's out of control now. They are in to things way, way, way beyond their years.
2. Fully 60% of our children have no motivation for academics. Many have little or no concern about their accomplishments or achievements. Worse yet, neither do their parents.
3. The number of students who are having emotional issues is tremendous. Our counselor has made numerous referrals for DCS as well as suicide prevention. The lockdowns, even as brief as they were in Tennessee, have had a terrible effect on our children's mental health.
4. Behavior problems of all manner have increased. While there is no concrete evidence, it is possible that this is due to the lack of parental supervision. Most of our kids stayed at home alone while their parents worked (Tennessee is working and has since the end of July). A large number of our children live in small one-bedroom apartments with a single mother, grandmother, or other guardian. They are pretty much left to raise themselves.
Now, about the public schools in Democrat ran cities, counties, and states. They are cesspools for any young mind. Where I live is deeply red, and for the most part our schools reflect that. But the new generation of young teachers are coming in from those communist indoctrination centers known as universities. They are bringing with them the "compassionate" low expectations taught to them by their communist cadre. It's disgusting. We are resisting the Left's racism, but the pressure is mounting and I fear our leadership will bend, then break, to the will of the evil being woven into our youth's minds.
I and others like me resist at every turn. But soon enough we will all be gone. Retirement for us is around the corner, and when we are gone it will be open season for the communists. My suggestion, do as the author says. Forego some luxuries and do what is best for your children. It's the only way to save them.
18 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
Zigrid 3/5/2021 10:08:41 AM (No. 715609)
Never thought of the taxes for schools paid by every homeowner...there should be compensation given for not using the school system...I've mentioned before... when chicago politicians demanded busing... I moved my children to private schools and paid hefty tuitions... in addition to... taxes for schools I never used again...soooo... let's stop the flow of real-estate/property taxes to the teacher's union and start homeschooling... which is what has been done for one full year... and... send the children to church social events for companionship...and join park districts for sports...sounds good to me!!
5 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
HotRod 3/5/2021 10:11:07 AM (No. 715613)
Public schools are not focused on learning any more. At least, not in the normal sense. The schools are indoctrination centers and teacher unions are dedicated to that purpose.
Consider what is being taught in public schools: Gender issues. Sexual orientation. Socialism/communism, racial shaming, disrespect for authority- including parents, and so much more that destroys the fabric of America.
Kids don't know history or historical figures. What they may know is wrong. There is much more that is lacking in their education. Parents are not allowed to know what is being taught in many cases. Parents are excluded from many aspects of their child's education. For many parents, school is a day care center for all ages.
5 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
felixcat 3/5/2021 10:17:21 AM (No. 715618)
I am my two older brothers are products of public schools, both in New Jersey (1960s) and Florida (1970s). I always thought that I had excellent teachers and an education, even when bussed to an all black school in a black area of town. Of course back then, early 1970s, regardless of your skin color and the teacher's skin color, all the students were expected to behave and respect the teacher. Anyway, I think parents should have a choice. And if they choose private then their property taxes for the public schools should be waived.
7 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
DVC 3/5/2021 10:35:19 AM (No. 715631)
The real solution is vouchers. The chances of eliminating the taxes going to schools is near zero. The key is to let the parents choose whatever school they want, and the money collected from taxes goes to that school, NOT just to these evil government schools.
And keeping your kids and grandkids away from phones and the free porn of the internet is a really good idea.
7 people like this.
Reply 27 - Posted by:
Red Ghost 3/5/2021 11:35:41 AM (No. 715707)
I couldn't agree more with Ms. Lily. But if parents cannot because of economic circumstances take their kids out of the public school system, then they MUST get TOTALLY involved in their school. There are more sane parents than insane parents. And they need to organize and get into those schools, the way the communists have done. I do not have children, but, I was involved in my local school for years. I went to every school board meeting. Why? Because I was a taxpayer and wanted to make my voice heard. But with just a few exceptions, I NEVER saw parents at those meetings. In NYC, there are millions of parents and they must get involved in their schools. With large numbers parents can and will make a difference. While the teachers' unions are monolithic blocks, just like the Berlin Wall, they can be chipped at and taken down. And only parents in large numbers can do this. This BS online "learning" has given parents a huge window of opportunity to change the system. And they must or their children will be condemned to living miserable lives in a miserable totalitarian country. That's what's at stake here.
5 people like this.
Reply 28 - Posted by:
Dodge Boy 3/5/2021 11:46:49 AM (No. 715718)
We have five grandchildren, ages 7 through 16. Home-schooling them was a total nightmare for all five who are in the Jefferson County Public Schools in west Denver. It was very disruptive for the parents. My older son who is a pilot for Frontier was on the road as usual depending what routes he was assigned to fly so his wife was on her own to home-school the two boys (ages 7 and 9) five days a week. While the boys are being raised properly in my opinion, expecting them to learn from a parent who has no teaching experience was a real struggle. The other three grandkids are junior high and high school age. At this level, there was a bit more structure to each day because the teachers were much more engaged with their students via zoom meetings. Interestingly, though, all five grandkids felt some despair not being able to go to school. And now this is happening despite the usual opposition from the teachers' union who are always looking for ways to do less work for more money. The real damage, IMO, was from shutting down youth sports last year which had turned our young people into high-tech couch potatoes.
Closing down the public schools is a very very bad idea. But, I applaud those parents who sacrificed much to send their kids to private schools. While my wife and I never did this, we did manage to survive a financial nightmare of having all three of our kids attending college at the same time for one year. We lived like mice for that year, but, we stayed afloat somehow.
5 people like this.
Reply 29 - Posted by:
MDConservative 3/5/2021 11:52:09 AM (No. 715727)
Vouchers are another leash kept on children and parents.
Instead, let's "contract out" education. Entrepreneurs could start academies that would operate as a "public school" in the sense that they would use the same facilities and receive the same resources as the classes who opt for "public school" educational experience as an alternative.
Each academy would put forth its "charter"...traditional, progressive, STEM, etc. Parents could choose one for their student. If oversubscribed, a lottery would ensue. The entrepreneurs would be held to the same accreditation standards as pertains to academics. They would be free of any "values" mandates outside of core subjects, such as literacy, written communication and arithmetic/math.
Each entrepreneur would be free to set wages and would be exempt from unions. Their profits would depend on how they expend their budgeted money, for books, materials, etc., with an incentive for true exceptional performance as established by legitimate testing of students.
No one needs vouchers - let's reform the schools and replace educators with teachers, and babysitting with actual parenting.
0 people like this.
Reply 30 - Posted by:
DVC 3/5/2021 12:02:46 PM (No. 715739)
Pollyanna views, #29.
Any direct money flow to schools WILL, GUARANTEED, come with "strings", no ropes, no hawsers of control which will make any of those directly funded schools exactly like the government schools which they will claim are "for curriculum uniformity, don't you see?".
Only by giving vouchers to parents can the control by the government thugs (maybe) be cut. Even then they WILL try to retain control through the vouchers if they can.
The more indirect the funding flow, the better.
2 people like this.
Reply 31 - Posted by:
weejun 3/5/2021 1:55:18 PM (No. 715820)
As many of you have stated, school choice is at least a starting point to correct this disaster - outside of a Reaganesque firing of the teachers and starting over. Charter schools generally are supported by tax vouchers, making them less expensive than totally private schools. Why charter schools? Simple: competition. Parents sending their kids to charter schools would begin to hemorrhage funding from the public schools. They would either have to convince legislators to provide more tax dollars (granted, a valid threat in some blue states) to make up the funding difference, or improve the product in order to convince parents not to abandon them.
It breaks my heart to see what has happened to education in this country, but I am not surprised: liberals damage/destroy EVERYTHING they control and "manage."
3 people like this.
Reply 32 - Posted by:
Timber Queen 3/5/2021 2:15:39 PM (No. 715838)
#22 - Thank you for decades on the front lines of the slow-motion Marxist takeover of American schools. Your dedication and endurance is appreciated, and gives great weight to the observations you shared with us. I pray your students praise your name till the end of their days. Like you, I fear for the future when the old guard must retire from the field. You and your contemporaries deserve at least a combat theater badge, with a ribbon adorned by a golden emblem depicting a book with crossed pen and ruler.
God will lead us through whatever times He placed us for on this earth. A few days ago an Ldotter posted a poem by James Russell Lowell. I printed out one particular verse and posted it to my bulletin board:
"Careless seems the great Avenger; history's pages but record/ One death-grapple in the darkness, 'twixt old systems and the Word;/ Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne - Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown/ Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own."
6 people like this.
Reply 33 - Posted by:
Penney 3/5/2021 2:48:35 PM (No. 715860)
The public school system was once excellent. We know that because that's the way they were when we were educated in them. Several things changed them, lowering the bar to the current dismal level. Lack of discipline is one factor but the primary cause of the decline started when teachers' unions muscled in and started bullying into every area of the system. Getting rid of socialist unions should be the first step if the system is to ever restore its former esteemed recognition and, most vital, parental approval.
1 person likes this.
Reply 34 - Posted by:
downnout 3/5/2021 3:32:28 PM (No. 715890)
They should be fired..with prejudice.
2 people like this.
Reply 35 - Posted by:
DVC 3/5/2021 4:04:05 PM (No. 715910)
#33, yes the schools once were excellent. I remember saying the Lord's Prayer every morning, and the Pledge of Allegiance every morning in class. THAT was a good start for the day. I was finished with the eight grade reader early in the third grade, because my mother taught me to read at age 3 and 4, and things just accelerated in school, with teachers helping the better readers with a special reading class for kids who were way ahead of the standard class level. They helped the better students, didn't hinder them.
My HS math teacher set up a once a week night class in computer programming in 1968, and a school bus took interested students, and a college professor took her time to teach us Fortran programming, and we created punch cards and ran programs at a time when computers were just NOT available in High Schools. Those were great, smart and dedicated teachers. Many times I wish I could go back and thank them, but they are all gone now.
There still are a few teachers like that left, but most today are unskilled and uncaring. I have tutored HS students in the last 10 years, so have a good idea of the quality of instruction, and that is one of the best HS in Kansas, in one of the most affluent counties in Kansas, a state which is considered to have above average schools.
4 people like this.
Reply 36 - Posted by:
red1066 3/5/2021 5:13:30 PM (No. 715952)
Since my wife is a teacher, and I get to listen in on the online meetings they have, I can tell you that every teacher (over the age of forty) wants to be back in the classroom. The younger ones, not so much. They also are worried about a number of students who they see failing and really can't do anything about it because schools are closed. It's the teacher's union and the county executives that keep schools closed. The parents for the most part, want their kids back in school. Some parents are just clueless and want online schooling to continue. So starting next week, my wife goes back to the classroom and starts teaching a hybrid form of schooling. Some kids will be in class as usual, and some kids because their parents are idiots will continue the online stuff. So my wife will have cameras placed in the classroom so the online kids can see what's going on in the classroom.
5 people like this.
Comments:
Ms. Lilly makes excellent points.
The current government school systems are so totally destructive to the children, rather than instructive or constructive, why would we EVER want to go back?