Andrew Coulson at Cato writes about his appearance on John Stossel’s special on problems with public education:
Tomorrow night at 8:00pm, Fox Business News will air a John Stossel special on the failures of state-run schooling and the merits of parental choice and competition in education. I make an appearance, as do Jeanne Allen and James Tooley.
Now, here’s the part that grabbed my attention:
News of the show is already making the rounds, and over at DemocraticUnderground.com, one poster is very upset about it, writing:
When will these TRAITORS stop trying to ruin this country?
HOW can AMERICANS be AGAINST public education?
Stossel is throwing out every right-wing argument possible in his namby pamby singsong way while he “interviews” a “panel” of people (who I suspect are plants) saying things like preschool is a waste of money and why invest in an already-failing system….
I hate Stossel and I hate all of those who think the way he does.
Now, the DU poster’s rhetoric is (what a shock) a little lot over the top. But it’s not a whole lot different from the “if you’re not with the current public education system, exactly as it is (except a lot more money) then you’re against the children!” meme from the likes of MN2020, which ends up being something like “school choice is fine, unless it questions the current teachers union, adminstrative establishment and educational academy in any way, in which case it’s the same as sending six year olds directly to a homeless shelter”.
Coulson gets this:
What this poster–and many good people on the American left–have yet to grasp is that critics of state monopoly schooling are NOT against public education. On the contrary, it is our commitment to the ideals of public education that compels us to pursue them by the most effective means possible, and to abandon the system that has proven itself, over many many generations, incapable of fulfilling them.
Or to paraphrase that great sage Linda Richman; “What if public education doesn’t educate the public? Discuss amongst yourselves”.
I’m getting farklemt.
Here’s a way to silence liberals on this issue. just say simply this, So let me get this straight your pro-choice for women deciding to terminate a pregnany (use neutral language, saying killing babies will just piss them off and cause them to yell insanely at you) but you are against choice for a parent sending their kid to a better school. And you oppose vouchers because it would go to religious schools? So you are saying that basically because someone is poor they should be forced to go to a crappy public school and get a crappy education? I thought you guys loved the poor? Isn’t it us evil kkkonservatives that are heartless bastards?
Only problem with that Ben, is that no amount of statistics will get them to accept the phrase “crappy public school”. The knee jerk reflexive response will be “Why do you hate teachers (and by extension, children)?”
true, I don’t hate teachers but I sure as hell hate the NEA. I get to read some of their propaganda I mean pamphlets that my mom gets in the mail. I have to give them credit, they really have learned from Gobbels, he must be so proud looking up at them from the firey pits of hell. I got to stop with the religious analogies, must be because yesterday was Ash Wednesday
According to liberals forcing people to attend public school serves a public purpose. Legal abortion also serves a public purpose. See? No contradiction.
The trick, of course, is in who gets to decide what a public purpose is and what what promotes it.
F’n statist bastards.
Liberalism is a mental disorder
Ben, being a Classical Liberal is a GOOD thing.