Abolishing the Department of Education

[Stephen Colbert]

This is no longer a radical fringe ideology. I have met several conservative candidates who want to abolish this, the DoJ, the EPA etc etc. WHAT THE FUCK. Are people seriously this stupid? So bothersome...:(

[Adil3tr]

We have to do this, Do you know that some Yankee schools don't tell their kids that Reagan is the reincarnation of Christ!

[¿Que?]

Just exactly what is a solid revleft position for maintaining public education, anyway? I thought schools were just indoctrination factories into nationalism and capitalism, even at their best, or in even without things like the Texas Board of Education.

Shouldn't revlefters be setting up alternatives to public ed.?

[Nolan]

Our position on it should be neutral. Ironically, a public institution is the best tool to indoctrinate youth into capitalism, contrary to the views of people like Beck who like to paint public services as "socialist."

No way the state will give it up.

[Adil3tr]

private schools are worse, public schools are of the state and local community. I go to one, and believe me, I want to scream sometimes, but there are other alternatives besids home schools.
What if... the students took over the schools?
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,844704-1,00.html

I want to recreate this in a revolutionary context

[Rusty Shackleford]

an educational system serves any ideological system that employs it. they are not inherently in line with any ideology.

i for one would fully support a minimum of a 50bln/year budget just for kindergarten-12th grade education. all state provided. no private education institutions. just more public ones.

education is not the enemy, capitalist education and the capitalist failure to educate everyone are the enemy.

[Uppercut]

education is not the enemy, capitalist education and the capitalist failure to educate everyone are the enemy.

This. In my town, our school board is out of control. Earlier this year, they attempted to fire every coach throughout the entire district in one swoop. Thankfully, through widespread discontent, they reversed their decision. Sadly, they wrote a nasty letter about one of the students that organized the opposition to the college he was trying to get into (I forget which one, exactly). Because of this, he denied entry into said college.

But at least his dad decked a few of the board members at their last meeting. And the former principle (who was recently fired) is suing them. Kick ass. :thumbup1:

[Nolan]

This. In my town, our school board is out of control. Earlier this year, they attempted to fire every coach throughout the entire district in one swoop. Thankfully, through widespread discontent, they reversed their decision. Sadly, they wrote a nasty letter about one of the students that organized the opposition to the college he was trying to get into (I forget which one, exactly). Because of this, he denied entry into said college.

But at least his dad decked a few of the board members at their last meeting. And the former principle (who was recently fired) is suing them. Kick ass. :thumbup1:

Damn that's hardcore.

[McCroskey]

Education should be universal and free, and yes, it should be regulated by the state. As someone said, schools are the tool for indoctrination,but within the public framework, at least in "parliamentary democracies", you can still CHALLENGE this. If schools are privately owned, that means 2 things: The indoctrination goes on, but cannot be challenged, because, as a private business, I can set up whatever curriculum I want, even if it is teaching only Jedi history and Star Wars mithology, and it is infinitely more difficult to make sure that people have the chance of being given the logical, analytical and social skills to be able to understand the world and make decisions freely. The other consequence is that if education is not kept in the public sector, it turns into a profit-making business, where, first, only things that will make you succeed FINANCIALLY will be given priority, avoiding general knowledge such as history, linguistics or philosophy, and second, it will deny millions of working class children the chance of an education, as it will become, not a human right, but a right you will have to be able to buy.

(British people should bear in mind that in the rest of the world "public schools" actually mean "state schools". And non-british people should bear in mind that in the UK, "public school", means "private school", to avoid misunderstandings in this thread, by the way.

[theAnarch]

This is no longer a radical fringe ideology. I have met several conservative candidates who want to abolish this, the DoJ, the EPA etc etc. WHAT THE FUCK. Are people seriously this stupid? So bothersome...:(
lol Ironic because the EPA was created by a conservative...
wouldn't mind losing the DoJ or if Georgia abolished the Department of Driver Services.

As far as the Department of Education is concerned education is a tool of class rule, the capitalists reserve the best education for themselves while the child of the toiler is forced to attend a under funded bureaucratic mess that schedules his days, meal times, and activities not as a means of furthering there growth as a human being but as a means of adjusting his mind to being a factor of production. we are not wealthy enough for art, culture, or real learning.

This attempt to abolish the DoE is a move that I don't believe the ruling class will take seriously anytime soon.

Also why is education always debated as a youth question? Do people who are middle aged or even old not have a right to further them selves as a human beings?

[Lacrimi de Chiciură]

There is a broad campaign in education being organized right now. If you remember the strikes and walkouts in schools in March, that might indicate that the education movement can become a mass, people's movement.

http://defendcapubliceducation.wordpress.com/

Abolishing the Department of Education is code for further or completely privatizing education and using Charter schools to break unions. Privatizing education would make it an elite pass time, not for the working class. Large portions of education are already privatized, and if education was really public, it would be affordable to the public at the university level. Cutting education while the occupations continue in Iraq and Afghanistan, military involvement increases in Somalia and Pakistan, and the whole military industrial complex grows is basically an economic draft. With increased unemployment, less schools, and no one fighting back, of course more young people will see the military as an option. (We are still bombarded with "support the troops" worship even after 9 years of war and occupation.)

[redSHARP]

them breaking up the DOE is for the wrong reasons!
for fuck sake the right wingers in America have added Mose as a theological founder of the USA. The right wing wants to destroy any form of education that does not involve Jesus/Amerikan values like how the 1950's was a "golden era".

the intellectuals, progressive workers, and students need to stand up to these fucking barbarians and take back the educational system.