The ALL NEW Don't Think of an Elephant!: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate by George Lakoff
Authors: George Lakoff
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run states, like Wisconsin, funding for public education has been severely cut.
The conservative movement against public school education offers the alternative of charter schools, religious schools, and private schools. Charter schools are schools paid for publicly but run privately—very often by for-profit corporations.
The CREDO study at Stanford in 2013 found that about 75 percent of charter schools have results that are worse than, or no different from, traditional public schools. A small percentage of charter schools do have better results. But since funds for charter schools are taken from public school budgets, charter schools tend to drain money from public schools and make public education worse on the whole, even for the best public schools.
Moreover, charter schools have no accountability to local school districts or the public. A consequence in Texas, for example, is that charter schools tend to debunk evolution and science and teach creationism. In Michigan, 80 percent of schools are now charter schools, and they are doing no better at educating children in poverty than public schools.
The conservative framing is that public schools are “failing” and that vouchers for religious or private schools give parents “choice.” Those vouchers tend not to pay for high-quality schools, so that poor families that receive them tend not to get high-quality education for their children. But for wealthy parents, the vouchers represent public support for the wealthy and a cut in support for those who lack wealth.
The conservative attack on public education is being felt drastically in higher education. Conservatives in state legislatures are cutting funding for higher education, with two horrendous consequences. State-run colleges and universities used to be the gateways to education for poor and lower-middle-class students. As conservatives cut state university budgets, the schools, to stay in business, have had to raise their tuition, pricing higher education out of reach for a great many of these students. Students’ only alternative has been to borrow money, which raises the second problem: student debt. At a time when banks can borrow money at 1 percent interest, students have to pay 8 percent interest on their loans, which burdens them with many years of loan payments after they graduate. That makes it harder for them to afford getting a post-graduate education or starting a family. Present calculations are that if the government forgave all student loans, it would boost the nation’s economy far more than the cost of the loans. Nonetheless, conservatives are against both loan forgiveness and dropping the interest on student loans to the same rate that banks pay.
Whether at the level of pre-school, K–12, or higher education, the conservative move is to reduce or end public education—as part of the move to end public resources in general.
Education is a freedom issue. But that is not now being said in public discourse. Without education you are not free in many, many ways. Education tells you about the world and the possibilities in life. If you don’t know what is possible, you cannot even set goals. Education isn’t just about filling your head with facts; it’s about teaching you to think, to notice, to be critical, to act rationally, to be practical, and to get access to facts for yourself. Education gives you skills, the ability to do things you couldn’t do otherwise. Yes, educated people have more economic potential—and money can make you free in many ways—but the freedom education offers goes well beyond money. It opens the possibilities for connections to the natural world, for an aesthetic life, for a life of ideas, for an understanding of what is going on around you, and for an understanding of yourself. And it gives you the knowledge and the opportunity to be a productive citizen, to contribute to your own freedom and the freedom of others via political and social engagement.
If
The conservative movement against public school education offers the alternative of charter schools, religious schools, and private schools. Charter schools are schools paid for publicly but run privately—very often by for-profit corporations.
The CREDO study at Stanford in 2013 found that about 75 percent of charter schools have results that are worse than, or no different from, traditional public schools. A small percentage of charter schools do have better results. But since funds for charter schools are taken from public school budgets, charter schools tend to drain money from public schools and make public education worse on the whole, even for the best public schools.
Moreover, charter schools have no accountability to local school districts or the public. A consequence in Texas, for example, is that charter schools tend to debunk evolution and science and teach creationism. In Michigan, 80 percent of schools are now charter schools, and they are doing no better at educating children in poverty than public schools.
The conservative framing is that public schools are “failing” and that vouchers for religious or private schools give parents “choice.” Those vouchers tend not to pay for high-quality schools, so that poor families that receive them tend not to get high-quality education for their children. But for wealthy parents, the vouchers represent public support for the wealthy and a cut in support for those who lack wealth.
The conservative attack on public education is being felt drastically in higher education. Conservatives in state legislatures are cutting funding for higher education, with two horrendous consequences. State-run colleges and universities used to be the gateways to education for poor and lower-middle-class students. As conservatives cut state university budgets, the schools, to stay in business, have had to raise their tuition, pricing higher education out of reach for a great many of these students. Students’ only alternative has been to borrow money, which raises the second problem: student debt. At a time when banks can borrow money at 1 percent interest, students have to pay 8 percent interest on their loans, which burdens them with many years of loan payments after they graduate. That makes it harder for them to afford getting a post-graduate education or starting a family. Present calculations are that if the government forgave all student loans, it would boost the nation’s economy far more than the cost of the loans. Nonetheless, conservatives are against both loan forgiveness and dropping the interest on student loans to the same rate that banks pay.
Whether at the level of pre-school, K–12, or higher education, the conservative move is to reduce or end public education—as part of the move to end public resources in general.
Education is a freedom issue. But that is not now being said in public discourse. Without education you are not free in many, many ways. Education tells you about the world and the possibilities in life. If you don’t know what is possible, you cannot even set goals. Education isn’t just about filling your head with facts; it’s about teaching you to think, to notice, to be critical, to act rationally, to be practical, and to get access to facts for yourself. Education gives you skills, the ability to do things you couldn’t do otherwise. Yes, educated people have more economic potential—and money can make you free in many ways—but the freedom education offers goes well beyond money. It opens the possibilities for connections to the natural world, for an aesthetic life, for a life of ideas, for an understanding of what is going on around you, and for an understanding of yourself. And it gives you the knowledge and the opportunity to be a productive citizen, to contribute to your own freedom and the freedom of others via political and social engagement.
If
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