Ring Wing Attacks on Education Continue

Two stories in the last few days highlight the continued attacks of the right on education at all levels. In a more general sense, we can look at No Child Left Behind, The Students Bill of Rights, efforts to privatize education, the charter school movement and the like. More specifically, we have a new budget in Kansas that adds money while attacking teachers anew while in South Carolina we find legislators censoring college programs.

The Kansas education bill signed into law early Sunday morning did increase funding to schools, but at the cost of due process for teachers – allowing the firing of teachers without the hearings that now provide a mechanism for challenging unfair firings. The legislation was apparently at the behest of the Koch brothers and their Americans for Prosperity group, though it lacked democratic process, as outlined by Kent Bush of the Butler County Times –Gazette, “That is the problem with the Americans for Prosperity and the Koch brothers. They buy their way into offices so that they don’t have to participate in actual politics. You will never hear AFP or the Koch brothers in a direct debate … Hundreds of teachers filled the state capitol this weekend trying to lobby for legislators to take their side. There was no similar response from AFP. No one from that group stood in the chambers or held signs asking for legislators to take away teachers’ due process. They don’t have to. They write checks, send secret emails and support groups like ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council, which has two Kansas legislators on the board of directors) that create legislation like that passed this weekend.” And so the attacks on teachers continue – undermining the most important part of the educational system (as has been shown again and again across the most effective systems in the world).

The University of South Carolina Upstate also suffered an attack from the legislature, though in this case demanding that they cancel a humorous LGBT performance, How to Be a Lesbian in 10 Days or Less. And they complied with the following statement: “"One aspect of the Bodies of Knowledge Symposium [the larger event] that is garnering negative media attention is, 'How To Be A Lesbian In 10 Days Or Less.' The title of the show, while deliberately provocative, is also part of the comedy. The performance is satirical in nature but has not been received as such. The controversy surrounding this performance has become a distraction to the educational mission of USC Upstate and the overall purpose of the Bodies of Knowledge Symposium. As a result, we have canceled this segment of the symposium." The show, developed at Emerson College and performed at a number of universities and colleges already, is clearly satirical in nature, as the show's website description clearly indicates. Censorship in all forms is dangerous, but particularly when fortified by “political” concerns.