The Class (warfare) of 2007
Hey Folks -
Last week the local newspaper the Columbus Dispatch ran a series on the ten-year argument over the state's funding of public schools. The reporters did a pretty good job of presenting many of the facts of the case, but the piece didn't come down on either side of the question: "School funding: Is it fixed?"
Part of the exposition did show how those presently privileged and their political poodles felt about it: it's fixed; everything's fine; it's over. They weren't bothered by any of the facts; they never have been. This whole lengthy exercise in futility has been a story of class, one standard for the elite; another for everyone else.
Somehow the Ohio Supreme Court determined to rule honestly on the facts, and from that first decision ten years ago, the Republican legislature and governor ( not to mention patrician rags like the Columbus Dispatch) have been telling the court and the people to go fuck themselves; it will be a cold day in hell before the unwashed have a say.
Anyway, I felt the need to write my friends at the newspaper. What I shared with them is below.
- Uke Man
To the Editor,
After reading the week-long series on school funding, a few things are clear. In the ten years since the original DeRolph ruling not much has changed regarding the disparity between wealthy and poor school districts.
The wealthy and their political spokesmen claim “it’s been fixed,” and many of them actually believe it has. The general path of their rationalization is something like this:
The high-spending, wealthy schools are good enough for the children of the wealthy, and the low-spending, poor schools are good enough for the children of the poor. End of discussion.
At the same time, they never express their view that the low-spending, poor schools are not good enough for their own children. That would encourage the poor to call for “throwing money” at low-funded schools, and “money isn’t the answer.”
Neither do they explain why the well-off “throw” so much extra money at their own children’s schools. They do argue, as did Adam B. Schaeffer in a recent Dispatch column, that charter schools can educate poor children for $5,000 instead of $10,000, but never think to explain why high-tax-and-spend suburban public schools aren’t being run out of business by these marvelous, taxpayer-friendly charter enterprises.
In our Declaration of Independence it is claimed that “all men are created equal.” Maybe so, but the children of some men are clearly more equal than others.
Tom Harker
Last week the local newspaper the Columbus Dispatch ran a series on the ten-year argument over the state's funding of public schools. The reporters did a pretty good job of presenting many of the facts of the case, but the piece didn't come down on either side of the question: "School funding: Is it fixed?"
Part of the exposition did show how those presently privileged and their political poodles felt about it: it's fixed; everything's fine; it's over. They weren't bothered by any of the facts; they never have been. This whole lengthy exercise in futility has been a story of class, one standard for the elite; another for everyone else.
Somehow the Ohio Supreme Court determined to rule honestly on the facts, and from that first decision ten years ago, the Republican legislature and governor ( not to mention patrician rags like the Columbus Dispatch) have been telling the court and the people to go fuck themselves; it will be a cold day in hell before the unwashed have a say.
Anyway, I felt the need to write my friends at the newspaper. What I shared with them is below.
- Uke Man
To the Editor,
After reading the week-long series on school funding, a few things are clear. In the ten years since the original DeRolph ruling not much has changed regarding the disparity between wealthy and poor school districts.
The wealthy and their political spokesmen claim “it’s been fixed,” and many of them actually believe it has. The general path of their rationalization is something like this:
The high-spending, wealthy schools are good enough for the children of the wealthy, and the low-spending, poor schools are good enough for the children of the poor. End of discussion.
At the same time, they never express their view that the low-spending, poor schools are not good enough for their own children. That would encourage the poor to call for “throwing money” at low-funded schools, and “money isn’t the answer.”
Neither do they explain why the well-off “throw” so much extra money at their own children’s schools. They do argue, as did Adam B. Schaeffer in a recent Dispatch column, that charter schools can educate poor children for $5,000 instead of $10,000, but never think to explain why high-tax-and-spend suburban public schools aren’t being run out of business by these marvelous, taxpayer-friendly charter enterprises.
In our Declaration of Independence it is claimed that “all men are created equal.” Maybe so, but the children of some men are clearly more equal than others.
Tom Harker
1 Comments:
Hi Tom,
A fantastic letter!! I read all of the Dispatch articles and find your letter does a superb job summing up the conclusions. Having spent so many years teaching, we do understand the needs. Sondra
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