Libertarian Commentary #16-17F by Nathan Barton

The subversive nature and actions of Educrats

What are the limits to authority of the public (government-ruined, theft-funded) schools? Based on the actions of various school administrators, there are not many.

School officials in Wisconsin were caught on video trying to intimidate parents into closing down a weekly “Jesus Lunch” for hungry kids in a local park, and now the police are involved, according to World Net Daily. Mothers in Middleton have been hosting a Jesus Lunch 16 times per year since 2014 in Fireman’s Park. Students from Middleton High School, who may eat at local dining establishments, often choose a free lunch provided by the mothers. The religious message shared with meals was the catalyst for targeting the gathering, which has grown from a small handful of students to hundreds.

And meanwhile, in Tennessee, according to USA Today First-graders were cuffed, arrested, and charged; Murfreesboro outraged.  “Police handcuffed multiple students, ages 6 to 11, at a public elementary school in Murfreesboro on Friday, inspiring public outcry and adding fuel to already heightened tensions between law enforcement and communities of color nationwide. The arrests at Hobgood Elementary School occurred after the students were accused of not stopping a fight that happened several days earlier off campus. A juvenile center later released the students, but local community members now call for action (police review of the incident and community conversation), and social justice experts across the country use words such as ‘startling’ and ‘flabbergasted’ in response to actions in the case.”

In both cases as reported, the school administrators “cooperated” more or less with local law enforcement, treating their charges (students) as slaves under their total control, regardless of policies or decency.

We could take the claims made by these educrats, these administrators at face value: they take the “law” seriously and try to follow it – especially the laws demanding a complete separation of church and state and the laws against violence – just as we could take them at their word when they have cops come in and arrest students for having a forbidden weapon like a butterknife or a key-chain with a toy pistol on it; “it is the law, zero tolerance MUST be enforced.”  Or when they suspend kindergartners or first graders for committing acts of “sexual harassment:”  you know, things like “he told his teacher she was pretty,” or “he said he wanted to kiss the little girl.”

Or, we COULD take them at the sort of face value that rational people would: these people are nothing more than theft-funded tyrants who take great pleasure in teaching their charges like the criminals their actions for six to eight hours a day are busy turning them into to.  These administrators and staff and teachers are cruel and abusive, horribly warped men and women who are honored and empowered by society, backed up by a flood of government money and ultimately the guns of cops, whose sole purpose and thrill in life is to make their students as warped in spirit and mind as they are.

We know that neither extreme is accurate, but that both have some elements of truth.  There are many – even possibly those involved in these and other recent situations – who are sincere in believing that they are acting in the best interests of their students, those families, and society.  Who are sincerely certain that the government, despite errors and failings, really IS a good and necessary master. That even if they can just reach out and make an improvement in the life and future of just one student in twenty or fifty, they are doing a good thing.  And there are certainly teachers and administrators who are as heartsick as you or I at the hideous institutions which they inhabit and the evils that have developed, but are trying very diligently to correct and improve the situation, and if not completely fix it, at least get it to limp along a bit better.

But they are wrong, too.  No matter how good the intentions were in creating the modern American “Public School” system, what we are seeing today is the almost certain fruit of a system built on lies and dedicated to purposes which are the exact opposite of what a free people, a society of liberty, a culture of peace and prosperity should have been built on.  The amazing thing is not the horror which the modern public schoolhouse has become, not the way in which those running that schoolhouse seek to expand their power and control to the very edges of their communities and societies.  No, what is surprising and shocking is that it has taken so long to reach this point, and that the situation is not already much much worse.

But if it is allowed to continue down this path; if we continue to throw money and give respect and honor to those caught up in the system, and continue to force our children into the nightmare, it WILL get worse, very quickly.  And it will bring civilization crashing down.  For the system, like so much else in modern life, cannot be reformed.  Indeed, it cannot be restored, for it was rotten from the beginning. It can only be replaced; a decision that must be made NOT by “society as a whole” but by millions of families saying, “enough is enough.”