Thank you so very much for introducing this incredibly important topic.

I was a school psychologist for three decades in five states and many districts, comprising urban, suburban, rural, cooperatives, very poor and very rich. I observed the shift in support for public schools. At first it kinda shocked me, and then it saddened me, and then it scared me.

Since I retired I have been supplementing my income with private sector jobs: retail, nonprofits, small business. What I have discovered is a completely different world. People who love what they do versus people who are forced to give up the possibility that they are a valuable part of anything. The latter are always looking for a way out. They don’t often consider teaching because it requires a considerable time and money commitment and the financial rewards are so dismal. Single teachers who are starting out cannot live on their salary in urban or suburban areas. Read that sentence again: six years of higher education and they are not paid enough to live on.

So what happened? First, the country needed a scapegoat for class warfare. The capitalist greed mongers could blame failing schools for not ‘uplifting’ lower ‘incomers’. (Higher income families had two ways to make sure their children were not ‘left behind’: school based foundations and private schools.)

Second, equal rights movement (inadvertently, for the most part) blamed institutions for being complicit in oppression. There was a kind of passive aggressive opposition to schools: blame them, don’t support them. And this attitude spread to the students, making it no longer cool to be a successful student.

Note: this was not generally true during affirmative action. When students were give a fair shot and a way to further their education, they took it. This created a middle class for African Americans, especially. When affirmative action haters, class warfare zealots, started their propaganda campaign to delegitimize the accomplishments and skills of participants in affirmative action opportunities, the next generation kinda gave up on public education as a way out of the impact of racism.

Third, this undertaking of providing everyone an educational opportunity is not done anywhere else. It is a monumental undertaking. And somehow, the public has come to believe that it shouldn’t cost very much and it should be better. Teachers are schleps for being willing to be satisfied with a public salary, yet they are expected to be teachers, parents, therapists and social workers for every child, every day.

And there is a fourth, hard to see or believe reason we are in this public education pickle. It has to do with the culture wars. There are those citizens who don’t believe education has any real value. They and their families, don’t trust the hot shots who spout the virtues of education. The liberals who opposed Vietnam, created the equal rights and women’s movements, and never shut up about education as the only pathway to decency and respect, became the enemy of workers, farmers, hippie haters, and defensive push-backers.

Unions could no longer protect workers wages and their jobs were shipped overseas, but those responsible for dismantling their livelihoods were never held accountable. It was the fucking liberals and their stupid insistence on education. And the Democrats really were not listening. They didn’t understand those (defensive) groups that thought they were being judged as ‘not enough’ and fought back.

So here we are. Most middle class families (what’s left of them) and above, can get a descent education for their children. And the slow moving efforts to end public support for almost everything is winning. The culture wars have targeted education and their scapegoating efforts have been succeeding.

I want to add one more thought. Teachers don’t need or want our sympathy. They want to teach. I have long thought that their value should be made visible by a total shutdown across the country, including the Catholics, private schools and those horrible, horrible for profit abominations. The public doesn’t get something for nothing in the world of education. A few billionaires could pay their salaries for a few months. No one is off the hook: the rich families who pay or the haters who dismiss.