CNSNews' Jeffrey: "It is time to drive public schools out of business"

[phantom power]

Terry Jeffrey, editor-in-chief of Media Research Center subsidiary CNSNews, takes the right’s war on public school teachers a few steps further:

What Wisconsin ought to be debating is whether these public school teachers should keep their jobs at all.

Then every state ought to follow Wisconsin in the same debate.

It is time to drive public schools out of business by driving them into an open marketplace where they must directly compete with schools not run by the government or staffed by members of parasitic public employees' unions.

…

In addition to being less expensive and better than public schools at teaching math and reading, Catholic schools -- like any private schools -- can also teach students that there is a God, that the Ten Commandments are true and must be followed, that the Founding Fathers believed in both and that, ultimately, American freedom depends on fidelity to our Judeo-Christian heritage even more than it depends on proficiency in reading and math.

That’s what at least some conservatives want to get out of their attacks on unions: The complete elimination of public schools. And Jeffrey is adamant that private schools not be regulated by states in any way: "the state shall not regulate the private schools, period." That means no oversight to make sure private schools are successfully educating children. Or to make sure they’re providing safe conditions and sanitary facilities. Nothing. What could possibly go wrong?

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201102230027

[WCGreen]

1. That worked so well in the 1800's...

[phantom power]

2. These people are completely ahistorical, and irrational.

To the extent that they think about history at all, it's an utterly romanticized version of history that isn't reality-based.

[ieoeja]

6. We shut down all public schools in the 1800s?

I know that free, public schools existed in the colonies. And that John Adams first rose to notoriety fighting against King George III's appointment of a judge who advocated shutting those down. The judge cited all the same reasons we hear today: schools are failing, private institutions would do a better job for less money, etc.

Decades later his private letters became public. Turns out his big worry was that the public schools were working too *well*. And educated people were unwilling to just listen to "their betters".

The judge was, of course, proven right. The American Revolution is a testament to that fact.

[WCGreen]

16. The schools weren't mandated and they weren't funded with public

money...

It wasn't universal as well.

It wasn't until the Progressive Era when universal public schools came into being.

Curiously, the reason it was put in place was to get kids out of the workforce and give them something to do, especially in the big cities.

[ieoeja]

20. Then what were the Brits trying to do in the 1700s?

From what you wrote, I guess these free public schools must have been privately owned schools open to the public and funded by donations rather than tuition. So were the Brits trying to force privately owned schools to charge tuition instead of accepting donations?

It sounds king of odd.

I know most kids did not avail themselves of the education. I'm sure a lot of uneducated parents saw no reason for their kids to get an education. And, of course, they needed them to work. Even in the 1970s my dad would not let me participate in high school sports because he wanted me back on the farm.

But there have been free schools referred to as "public schools" since before the United States was a country. I don't understand how people could argue for shutting them down if their taxes weren't helping pay for them.

[callous taoboy]

3. Terry Jeffrey: STUCK ON STUPID

[la la]

11. with nearly as irritating voice as

the aforementioned victoria jackson! ;>0

[Newest Reality]

4. The term education is becoming more

synonymous with training. Studying for test scores alone, in order to feed the income of test-creating corporations is not what I consider an education, in the first place. My sense of the word is a well-rounded introduction to various aspects of the world we live in, as well as learning the skills necessary to function in it. Knowing is not just about math, reading, writing, etc.

However, if we take it to the private level and corporations have even more say, (they already have influence) then we can expect our children to be trained as servants of the corporate, mono-culture model. Just think of the impact that corporations have already had on culture, business, and our daily lives and wealth. I leave the speculations and extrapolations to the reader.

[Iris]

5. Only problem is, those schools aren't any better either.

Or at least charter schools aren't.

[w8liftinglady]

9. my partner says kids that enter his system from sm private xtian schools

are usually 2 years behind in many subjects

[Iris]

13. and then there are those who may not get some subjects at all

like science

[unblock]

7. substitute "islamic" for "catholic" and "muhammad al-jafri" for "terry jeffrey"

and the right-wing and the msm (but i repeat myself) would label this an anti-amurikan terrist organization so fast it would make your head spin.

but this is "our" god we're talking about, so it's all hunky-dory.

[Raksha]

23. And they'd call the charter schools and fundie Christian private schools "madrassas"!

[mysuzuki2]

8. And, students have no right to an education at Catholic

or any other private schools. The school does not have to accept them. Where will the kids with special needs, the ones who maybe don't behave all that well or the ones who aren't good students or who do not score well on tests go? The public schools have to take everyone. If this were so for private schools I wonder how well they would score in comparison?

[DBoon]

10. Catholic schools are run by clerics who take vows of poverty

this is why they are so inexpensive.

[Gaedel]

14. Once true, not so much now

50 to 100 years ago, many daughters in the large Catholic families were encouraged to become nuns in the teaching orders. This provided the Catholic schools with a large faculty working for "three hots and a cot" and enabled the lower middle class and lower class Catholic families to provide a Catholic based education for their children. During the same period, the public schools taught a sort of "secular Protestantism" which was anathema to the Catholic families. Those Catholic families struggled to maintain parishes and parish schools without much help from the public.

Two factors caused this state of affairs to die off. Catholic families became smaller with fewer "excess" daughters and women taking religious orders did not want to go into teaching, preferring social work or other ways to "make a difference. If you go into any Catholic grade school now, you will find that the majority of the faculty are low paid lay teachers with "unpaid" nuns being the exception.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

12. Education isn't a "business", Jeffrey.

Asshole.

[louis-t]

15. When schools become all about profit, students lose.

Repugs would have you believe that there are thousands of right-wing Christian teachers out there just waiting in the wings for the repugs to privatize everything so they can work for next to nothing.

[Volaris]

17. His head is going to hurt when he realizes that catholic schools in this country

have been teaching evolution in Science classrooms for 30 years AT LEAST....because (most)of the teachers they hire understand the difference between Science and Bullshit, even if you have to attend Mass once a week. Its why Theology is taught as a separate class.

The Vatican may still owe Galileo an actual, formal apology (not sure) but they run one of the most respected Astronomical Observatories in Europe, and have for like 500 years, and that irony is not lost on the Enlightened Catholics of the world. What a jackass this fool is.

(I am NOT trying to start a debate about the subjective or objective value of Faith, or sweep aside the nastier bits of Vatican history with this thread.)

[deacon]

18. Yeah, like we need Dominos Pizza High School, or McD's Middle School

or other businesses running our educational system...get a grip dude.

[Jmaxfie1]

19. Look on the bright side, at least they will teach evolution n/t

[Fuzz]

21. Fire and police too. When my house in on fire, I like to spend time on the phone trying to get

the best price.

[Jokinomx]

22. as a husband of someone that actually works for a company that

runs charter schools and head start programs, I can say without question her experience has been disheartening.

I can't say how other charter schools are run or head starts managed...but taking the union out of the teachers workplace hurt teachers and students.

My wife HAS to put in at least 55 hours a week to effectively do her job. She is not under contract and is considered an hourly employee. She is not allowed to work over 40 hours for fear that she would lose her job. So she has to do much of her planning at home. Teachers have been told that if you can't do your job in the allotted time ... find another job. They are not allowed to attend company board meetings. When she taught 3rd grade in a charter school, the principle threatened the teachers with dismissal if they attended a board meeting to express their concerns on how the school was run.

She longs for the day she will be able to quit. Not because she hates her job, she is an outstanding teacher, one that any parent would want in front of their kids....but she hates those that manage the system and know very little about what it takes to be an effective teacher but rather what it takes to run a business for profit.

It certainly is a step towards the downfall of our society.

[Rex]

24. Oh and he taught in a public school for 20 years so knows all about

FUCKINGETABOUTITALREADY! The man is a fucking idiot and might be fucking an idiot. Why is it the people that know the LEAST about education always making the MOST fuss about killing off education? Oh I know, Terry was a total flunky in school and never had a single date or friend...he vowed to get even with PE one day by killing it off so no one would have to experience High School as the level 12 geek from the neighbors basement.

[reformist2]

25. He's sick in the head.