Public education is in danger

A worrying threat is emerging. The right-wing movement to dismantle public education is escalating. And I’m increasingly concerned that many allies of public education seem totally unprepared to fight back.

As long as I have been in education, it has been “under attack.” When I entered the classroom in 2007, that threat came mainly from charter schools, standardized testing, and “corporate ed reformers.” I didn’t fully see these as the existential threat that others labeled them at the time. Now I see them differently. I more or less agree that they collectively harm efforts to build a high-quality and equitable education system. That said, what is happening now represents a much more cataclysmic danger.

One clear warning sign is that public school support has become a partisan issue. According to a Gallup poll released in July, only 14% of Republicans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in public schools. This number is down from 34% in 2020. To be honest, numbers among Democrats and Independents aren’t great (43% and 29%, respectively).

What’s to blame for this drop in approval? One factor could be pandemic exhaustion. Some people are directing anger towards public schools and teachers over mask mandates and closures. 

But another likely culprit is the concerted effort by the right to generate outrage over Critical Race Theory and “grooming.” Both of these are insidious misrepresentations of good teaching. Students should know that slavery existed. They should understand that White people, including this country’s founders, took part in the institution. Similarly, they should learn about the history of resistance to slavery by Black people as well as White people. Likewise, LGBTQ+ students or students with LGBTQ+ family members should know that those identities will be represented, respected, and affirmed. But somehow, the right has successfully smeared antibias antiracist education. In the process, they’ve also undermined confidence in teachers.

Octavio Jones/Getty Images via Politico

Why does the right want to dismantle public education? There are a lot of ways to answer, but here are two.

First, the near-term answer: The right is interested in dismantling public education because they’re generally anti-public anything. The right is pro-privatization, both because they believe private = better and because private = profit. This answer applies to a wide range of conservatives. 

The other two answers I’ll offer are more applicable to the extreme-right, MAGA camp of the right wing. First, public schools, by virtue of being open to anyone, are sites of social cohesion. They are places where Muslim students can learn alongside Christian students, kids with disabilities learn alongside able-bodied kids, and so on. Because of federal anti-discrimination laws, public schools must abide by some basic protocols to serve students of all backgrounds. Through social mixing, students can learn to be comfortable and welcoming of difference. This type of inclusivity is seen as an attack on “American values” by MAGA conservatives.

The sad thing is, most public schools aren’t living up to the threat the extreme right sees them as. Most public schools do not serve diverse student populations. They also generally fail to serve students of color and LGBTQ+ students. In reality, public schools are pretty socially conservative institutions. In twelve years of teaching in New York City, I encountered much more pushback from colleagues about antiracist antibias teaching than enthusiasm. Nonetheless, public schools represent a potential threat which is enough for the far right to wage an attack.

And so far, it seems to be working. The right has mobilized a wide range of people to show up at school board meetings and at the voting booth. What worries me is I don’t see a countermovement on the left. And as flawed as public schools are, and believe me, I know they are, we need public schools. 

We need public schools that are well funded and well resourced. We need public schools that are so much better than they are now. But to achieve the public education system all kids deserve, we must defend our faulty system. Conservatives are eager to dismantle public education to turn it into yet another private system, even more inequitable and segregated than it is. Furthermore, the MAGA right is not only attacking public schools; they are attacking a wide range of institutions vital to a functioning democracy. Public schools that teach accurate history and accurate civics represent a crucial defense against democracy. 

What would it look like to defend public education as passionately as the right is attacking it? It will look different from city to city, so the most straightforward answer is to find out what’s going on in your school community. Then, speak up in favor of antibias and antiracist education by attending meetings. Write letters to policymakers or your local newspaper. In addition, pay attention to funding battles in your community. In New York City, families are on the verge of a major victory against Mayor Eric Adams, whose budget defunded schools while awarding cops the largest budget in history. We need well-resourced schools and fairly compensated educators for public education to not only survive but thrive.

Organizing from the left is always more challenging because we’re a more multiracial, multi-issue coalition. In addition, public schools are intensely segregated. For many White liberals the threat to public education may seem too abstract or distant to feel concern. But like all public goods, we have a shared interest in protecting and improving public schools. As the right’s attacks grow, we have to be vigilant, and we have to be active. We can’t afford to let the far right win their war on public education. They may be loud, but they are the minority. We have to mobilize in defense of public schools before it’s too late.

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