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From: wjr@x.UUCP (Bill Richard)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Public Schools, Equality and Democracy
Message-ID: <569@x.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 15-Sep-85 23:56:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: x.569
Posted: Sun Sep 15 23:56:31 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 19-Sep-85 06:29:44 EDT
References: <11254@rochester.UUCP> <7800424@inmet.UUCP> <722@cybvax0.UUCP> <703@whuxl.UUCP>
Reply-To: wjr@x.UUCP (STella Calvert)
Organization: Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA
Lines: 67

  Make my day, lineeater!
Note:  This is STella Calvert, a guest on this account.

In article <703@whuxl.UUCP> orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER) writes:
>I think Mike Huybensz had an excellent point about the potential
>problem of private schools:
>> 
>> There is also the danger of forming a powerful industry, which would
>> lobby in its own economic interests, rather than in the interests of
>> the students or the public.  You would see the rise of industry giants,
>> as we see in automobiles, fast-food, hospitals, etc.  Do you want the only
>> nearby school to be as responsive as a McDonalds?

That's the case now.  The educational establishment does NOT work in the 
interest of the students or the public.  Perhaps the best statement of 
the goal of the public education industry is the motto over the entrance 
to a junior high in Ann Arbor, MI, "The foundation of the state is the 
education of its citizens." The one question I guarandamtee you will not 
find covered in government classes in any public school is, "Is 
government necessary?"

>KEY element of responsiveness: namely local school boards elected by
>those who live in the school districts they serve.  These school boards

are often elected by a bare majority of the people who bothered to 
vote.  Not a majority of the people who have children in schools, or of
those who are taxed to support the schools, but a majority (sometimes 
of VERY few votes) of the people who accept government as a legitimate 
vehicle for their views.

>But as Winston Churchill put it "Democracy is a very *bad* form of
>government - but it is the best form of government ever found."

"Of government!"  Democracy is a very bad form of settling grievances, 
but it is the best form yet implemented.  That, however, does not mean further
improvement is impossible.

>If the school's owners decide that it would be in their corporate interests
>to begin propagandizing children to use their products . . . and
>advance the cause of their corporation, who will stop them?

This is already the case.  The government schools do propagandize for the
continuation of government.  I offered, many years ago, to present the
other side of the story to a friend's junior high history classes.  She was in
favor of this at first, but later phoned me, embarrassed, and disinvited me.
Suggesting that the government was unnecessary was "not a worthwhile 
educational issue".  What about taxation without representation?  

>I personally, and I am sure others would agree, would feel much less
>motivation to help a corporate school already making profits off
>children's need to learn basic skills.

Does that tell you why I don't bother with the school board?

If I am ever responsible for the education of a child, I will send it to
public school for the same reason I will get it inoculated against other
life-threatening diseases. And at the end of each year, I will give it the
choice between continuing to attend government-controlled schools and some
combination of home study and private schooling.  And, yes, I will be a
cranking nuisance at PTA and school board meetings (the child's reactions to
the (lack of) response I get should be more educational than the formal
curriculum).

				STella Calvert
				(guest on ...!decvax!frog!wjr)

		Every man and every woman is a star.