The Powers That Control Public Education

by Craig Cantoni

Those who think that public education can be fixed have never spent time perusing the web sites of the National School Board Association, the American Association of School Administrators and the National Education Association.  It is far less painful to put a stick in your eye than it is to endure the mental anguish of reading the claptrap posted on the sites.

The National School Board Association site recently touted the association's convention in New Orleans.  The site listed the city's tourist attractions but failed to mention that taxpayers were picking up the tab for the junket.  

In the NSBA's defense, New Orleans is a perfect place to hold a convention on education.  Conventioneers can learn things in the French Quarter that they would never learn in Buffalo.  One night I learned that it is not smart to drink 12 beers and then take a swaying streetcar back to my hotel             

The NSBA web site instructs members on how to fight vouchers and how to lobby legislators.  It also lists the four caucuses of the association:  the National Caucus of Black School Board Members, the National Hispanic Caucus, the National Caucus of American Indian/Alaska Native School Board Members and the National Caucus of Young School Board Members.  There is not a white male caucus.  

Judging by its platforms and caucuses, NSBA is apparently a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party.

Another association, the American Association of School Administrators, appears to be a clone of the National School Board Association and also a subsidiary of the Democratic Party.  

The AASA web site talks about the association's upcoming convention.  Guess where it will be held.  Yep, New Orleans.  Those taxpayer-paid, late-night seminars on Bourbon Street must really be educational.

Most of the subjects listed on the first page of AASA's web site have little to do with academics.  One is on asthma, one on financing indoor air quality tools and one on training in indoor air quality tools.

The site has a link to a recent article in the Arizona Republic.  The article said that public schools are failing Hispanics, implying that enough money is not being spent on them.  Being politically correct, the article did not cite the fact that most Hispanics in Arizona are legal and illegal immigrants from Mexico, where the dropout rate is 50 percent, a tradition that is carried across the border to this country.  

Public school financing is not failing Hispanics.  The Hispanic culture is failing Hispanics.  But do not expect mainstream newspapers or the AASA to say something that would go against the education establishment's agenda of acquiring more money and power.  Unfortunately, since the first step in solving any problem is to identify the root-cause of the problem, the lack of honesty about the root-cause will keep the problem of low Hispanic academic performance from being solved, with or without more money.

The last web site on our list is the National Education Association's site.  It is the creme de la creme of education establishment claptrap.  It should be read only after drinking 12 beers on Bourbon Street, but before getting on a swaying streetcar.   

Guess where the NEA is holding its upcoming conference on bargaining and political action?  Fooled you.  It will be held in Dallas, not New Orleans.         

The NEA web site does not say much about educating kids, but it does proudly announce a new training program on diversity.  It is a safe bet that the program does not include the views of white males or conservatives.  For sure, it will not explain why the NEA and its allies in the AASA and NSBA are hurting minorities by fighting vouchers, tax credits and other education choice measures that would let poor minority kids escape failing public schools.    

It is clear from the web sites that the three groups that have a stranglehold on public education would rather strangle innovation, competition and children's futures than give up power.  Their web sites are all about protecting that power.

It also is clear that parents and the general public know little about the inner-workings of the three groups, thanks to the mainstream media's almost total blackout of news stories that would put the groups in a negative light.  This in spite of the fact that the groups are the most powerful lobby in the nation and, along with text book publishers, control what is taught children.      

Speaking of text book publishers, it is clear why the few remaining ones publish politically correct pabulum that rewrites American history to make it appear that the roots of our constitutional republic come from Africa, Latin America and Native Americans.  The publishers are simply serving their multicultural masters in the NSBA, AASA and NEA.

In essence, the three groups and their federal and state government benefactors have a monopoly on thought over the most impressionable segment of the population, K-12 children.  This not only has Orwellian overtones, but it also has the long-term potential of undermining the classical liberal values that are the foundation of this nation.  According to those values, the state should be subservient to individual freedom in a pluralistic society, not the other way around.  

As the three web sites show, the most important problem facing public education is not funding, buildings, curriculum or test scores.  It is group-think.  It is the frightening prospect that 90 percent of Americans are being taught values that are at odds with liberal democracy.

But what is even more frightening is that most Americans do not care.  They do not care because they have already been indoctrinated in group-think.  Like programmed automatons, they see nothing wrong with turning their kids over to the NSBA, the AASA and the NEA.
_____________

Mr. Cantoni is an author, public speaker and consultant.  He an be reached at ccan2@aol.com. ;     

Last update: 4/9/2002; 6:15:36 PM.