The deliberate destruction of the educational system for everyone, not just AAs and the poor or Hispanics et.al., to deprive the citizenry of the mental tools they need to be good citizens and incidentally know when the neocons and Fascistii are lying in their own self interest.

An ignorant population is much easier to manipulate than and educated one.

Yet….

This side of the issue is never broached by us in our attempted counterattacks….

One wonders why not?

is that a donut that’s been dunked?

i would like to point out that this year the n@acp convention is in cincinnati, republican bastion…..naacp wanted it there to ’heal’ the city after riots there a few years ago from police/citizen incidents…yeah, right….mccain is safe and sound in the city that brought you ken blackwell and former gov. taft………..

i’m sure pols just like blackwell are cheering mccain on, eating catered food and smacking each other on the back and raising money for him as we speak. five blocks from the projects, where i can attest they are not eating pretty sandwiches and fruit plates.

when i heard it was going to be there, i wondered who was on the committee for the convention and how they finangled it…..seriously.

but then, maybe blackwell doesn’t belong to the n@acp…….there’s a thought.

That’s a sentiment that requires being taken to its logical conclusion: government is simply people acting collectively; erego, people are inherently bad (which has an oddly religious fundamentalist ring to it). More pointedly, since government is strongly influence by corporate lobbyists and the personal associations between corporate big wigs and government leaders, those corporate big wigs and government leaders are baddest of all. I don’t think neocons appreciate having their word taken quite so literally.

The reality is that public education, starting about 1890, including primary, secondary and free or low cost state land grant colleges, made modern America. It was a critical factor in making large-scale middle America possible. It dramatically expanded the number of those who lived between Carnegie’s townhouses and those who toiled in his mills and Rockefeller’s mines (as shorthand illustrations). It provided the millions of middle managers that made large scale production (eg, Al Sloan and Henry Ford’s car factories) and urban life possible.

Public primary and secondary education made modern America possible. Its failings make comprise those of contemporary America. They dramatically constrain America’s future, especially the high cost of public university education, access to which is vital to help us compete on a global scale.

Abandoning public schools by diverting scarce funds to private or parochial schools is abandoning the middle class and America’s future. It’s an abandonment of America’s aspirations that we can make the future a better place, especially for the urban poor. It would be like reverting to private fire and police services, private toll roads, and a government in which only the rich could participate.

I can see why the neocons want that. The wealth that insulates them is made globally; it’s also made from asset stripping older businesses (from cars to newspapers to retail), and selling off public infrastructure (eg. Midwestern turnpikes) for temporary gains — transactions that will ultimately cost us dearly. Why anyone but a few neocons would think that a good thing is beyond me.