We live in a representative democracy. We elect governmental leaders and empower our leaders to represent our best interests in the making of laws and policies that will sustain our commonwealth and future prosperity and assure the balance of our freedoms and responsibilities as citizens of our nation, states and communities. This is a great thing and we cherish the ideals of democracy.
Does it work? Most of the time, but not always. In regard to public education, representative democracy has created an oligarchy of partisan politics in which the issues of educational public policy are not formulated for the education of children. Instead, the educational policies and practices of partisan oligarchs are designed to coalesce a constituency of voters who will use the electoral process to legitimate and maintain the political dominance of their chosen party.
Examine the educational platforms of the Republican, Democratic and Libertarian parties. The planks of these platforms represent the consensus of representative party leaders.
The Republican Party controls the US House of Representatives, hence the purse of our nation. The Republican Party controls twenty-four state governments by virtue of an elected governor and a majority of state legislators. The education of children is not addressed in the US Constitution but is the responsibility of the states. From the perspective of decision-making, the Republican Party is what President G. W. Bush self-described as himself: the Decider. The Republican Party has the power to decide the major issues of our nation.
The role of a minority party is to present an alternative perspective of significant issues. The Democratic Party and the Libertarian Party pose alternatives to the Republican’s power-based policy decisions.
Republican Party on education
• Shift to community colleges and technical institutions. (Aug 2012)
• No federal college loans; just insure private loans. (Aug 2012)
• Promote school choice and home-schooling. (Sep 2004)
• Support voluntary student-initiated prayer in school. (Sep 2004)
• Limit role of federal government in education. (Aug 2000)
• Increase access to higher education with savings accounts. (Aug 2000)
• Strongly support voluntary student-initiated prayer. (Aug 2000)
• Achievement is basis for access to college. (Aug 2000)
http://www.ontheissues.org/Republican_Party.htm#Education
Democratic Party on education
• OpEd: anti-school choice policy alienates Hispanics. (Mar 2013)
• Turn around struggling public schools; expand public options. (Sep 2012)
• Double investment in Pell Grants & more tax credits. (Sep 2012)
• Make college tuition tax deductible. (Nov 2006)
• Standardized tests to advance learning, not bureaucracy. (Jul 2004)
• Charter schools OK, vouchers not. (Jul 2004)
• Support lifelong learning and Distance Learning. (Jul 2004)
• Bush broke promise of NCLB by not funding it. (Jul 2004)
• Democrats are the party of public education. (Oct 2003)
• Education is top priority in Democrat presidency. (Aug 2000)
• Character education is an important aspect of education. (Aug 2000)
• Accountability is a key to public school success. (Aug 2000)
• Reduce class size, modernize facilities, hire new teachers. (Aug 2000)
• Enact new tax programs to enable more life-long learning. (Aug 2000)
• U.S. needs public school accountability, not vouchers. (Aug 2000)
http://www.ontheissues.org/Democratic_Party.htm#Education
Libertarian Party on education
• Let parents control all educational funding. (May 2008)
• Poor kids end up at worst schools in current system. (Nov 2000)
• Separation of education and State. (Jul 2000)
• End compulsory busing & compulsory education. (Jul 2000)
• Support a market in education to provide more choices. (Nov 2000)
• The state should stay out of education. (Jul 2000)
• Treat private school funding the same as public schools. (Jul 2000)
http://www.ontheissues.org/Libertarian_Party.htm#Education
These positions represent the educational priorities of the politicians who drive education in the United States and our fifty statehouses. How is the Republican platform interpreted into my state’s priorities? How does my Governor interpret the educational interests of the people of Wisconsin.
“We trust teachers, counselors and administrators to provide our children world-class instruction, to motivate them and to keep them safe. In the vast majority of cases, education professionals are succeeding, but allowing some schools to fail means too many students being left behind. By ensuring students are learning a year’s worth of knowledge during each school year and giving schools the freedom to succeed, Wisconsin will once again become a model for the nation.” — Scott Walker
For years, Wisconsin had the distinction of being a national leader in educational reform. From the groundbreaking Milwaukee Parental Choice Program to policies aimed at expanding the role of charter schools in communities across the state, Wisconsin was viewed as a pioneer in educational innovation and creativity.
Wisconsin used to rank 3rd in fourth grade reading, now we’re in the middle of the pack at best with some of the worst achievement gaps in the nation.
Fortunately, Wisconsin has turned a corner and is once again becoming a leader in educational excellence by refocusing on success in the classroom. This has been done by pinpointing the following simple but effective reforms:
• Improving transparency
• Improving accountability
• Creating choice
We are working to restore Wisconsin’s rightful place as an education leader. Our students, our teachers, and our state’s future depend on our continued implementation of reform.
http://www.scottwalker.com/issues/education
What is missing? Some would say, “If I have to tell you, you won’t understand,” but here goes. I select parts of “The Purpose of Education” by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“It seems to me that education has a two-fold function to perform in the life of man and in society: the one is utility and the other is culture. Education must enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the legitimate goals of his life.
Education must also train one for quick, resolute and effective thinking. To think incisively and to think for one’s self is very difficult. We are prone to let our mental life become invaded by legions of half truths, prejudices, and propaganda. At this point, I often wonder whether or not education is fulfilling its purpose. A great majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically and scientifically. Even the press, the classroom, the platform, and the pulpit in many instances do not give us objective and unbiased truths. To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.
The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.
We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character–that is the goal of true education. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate. The broad education will, therefore, transmit to one not only the accumulated knowledge of the race but also the accumulated experience of social living.”
http://www.drmartinlutherkingjr.com/thepurposeofeducation.htm
What if Dr. King’s two-fold purposes of education were the clear public policy for education?
Education must:
• Enable a man to efficiently achieve with increasing facility the goals of his life.
• Train one for quick, resolute and effective thinking.
• Enable one to sift and weigh evidence, discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from fiction.
• Give one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate.
• Transmit the accumulated experience of social living.
These “planks” contribute to the common good of everyone regardless of party affiliation. And, these planks provide an overarching focus for public education that assist the education of children now and for years to come.
Public education is not and will not be well served by a partisan oligarchy until we demand better of our leaders. When Robert Michels enunciated the “iron law of oligarchy” he pointed to the reality that democratic principles must inevitably devolve into oligarchies in order to sustain the organization of government. Michels also said that revolt at the ballot box may be the only peaceful way for citizens to throw off the existing oligarchs.
http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/michels/polipart.pdf
“A little rebellion now and then is a good thing,” wrote Thomas Jefferson, 1787, in a letter to James Madison. Now and then is now.