Post-coronavirus conditions will reveal many dramatic changes in our economy and society.  A number of employers who were capable of having their employees work from home will have found that in many cases the situation was more efficient.  But perhaps the most significant change will be its effect on education.  Recently a Deep State publication printed an article entitled "Homeschooling during the coronavirus will set back a generation of children.”  In it an education "expert," Kevin Huffman, claims "The United States is embarking on a massive, months-long virtual-pedagogy experiment, and it is not likely to end well."  He has come to this conclusion because "years of research shows that online schooling is ineffective."  Of course, this research was conducted by educational "experts" who might have an interest in denigrating "virtual-pedagogy." 

The educational complex from pre-k to graduate school is controlled to a large extent by the Deep State.  Many 1960 radicals like Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn and Angela Davis joined the educational complex with the intent of indoctrinating children.  1960s radical Jerry Rubin boasted, “We are stealing the youth of America right out of the kindergartens and elementary schools.” 

The Deep State believes children belong to the state.  This is an ancient idea that can be traced back to Plato.  It was popular during the French Revolution and advocated by Bertrand Barere and the Marquis de Sade who stated, “Do not think you can make good republicans so long as you isolate in their families the children who should belong to the republic alone.”  The Soviet Union had its advocates in M.N. Liadov and Zlata Lilina: “We must rescue these children from the nefarious influence of family life.   Our task now is to oblige the mother to give her children to us – to the Soviet state.” 

Today we have Simone de Beauvoir who stated, "No woman should be authorized to stay at home and raise her children, Melissa Harris-Perry, "we have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents," and Hillary Clinton’s It Takes a Village.

When "normalcy" returns, the vast majority of students will return to government and government supported schools.  But a significant number will not, and many of the parents who do send their children back will be much more attentive to some of the more bizarre programs advocated by the left.  Lessons, like putting a condom on a cucumber are probably not what most parents are in favor of.  The idea that “gender is a social construct” and the push for same sex bathrooms are other issues that are not popular with most parents.  Parents may object to a Common Core official's explanation that "3×4 = 11" might be an acceptable answer. "If they were able to explain their reasoning."

The Deep State will redouble its offensive against homeschoolers.  They view homeschoolers as "deplorables" clinging to their guns and bibles.  One of the leaders of this offensive is Harvard Law’s Elizabeth Bartholet.  She calls for a radical transformation in the homeschooling regime, and a related rethinking of child rights and reframing of constitutional doctrine.  And she "recommends a presumptive ban on homeschooling, with the burden on parents to demonstrate justification for permission to homeschool."  Home schooled children will grow up “alienated from society, ignorant of views and values different from their parents.”  She claims, “Some homeschooling parents are extreme religious ideologues who live in near-total isolation and hold views in serious conflict with those generally deemed central in our society."  Another opponent of homeschooling is Prof. James Dwyer of William and Mary School of Law, who argues “fundamentalist Christian and Catholic schools may be damaging to children,” through the “excessive restriction of children’s basic liberties, stifling intellectual development, the instilling of dogmatic and intolerant attitudes."

Deep State "experts" would fear exposure less if they were successfully educating our children.  

However, it is becoming increasingly obvious that they are not.  Almost everyone agrees that the system is failing.  Only their solutions differ.  Progressives believe that more money is the answer.  They point to the fact that teachers have to buy school supplies out of their own pocket. 

They fail to mention the thousand-dollar-a-day consultants.  As an example, Washington, D.C. superintendent Franklin Smith hired consultant, Abena Walker, for approximately $250,000 to develop a program.  Walker founded the unaccredited Pan-African University, which awarded Walker a master's degree.  Walker is an expert on "Nommo," the African concept of the magic power of the word.  Opponents want a return to more traditional methods of teaching. 

School superintendents also receive outrageous salaries.  Outgoing Keansburg Schools Superintendent Barbara A. Trzeszkowski received $556,000 in severance and unused sick and vacation time.  Former Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Kathy Augustine, who was implicated in the Atlanta school scandal, received $188,000 for a single day of work when she was terminated. Philadelphia superintendent Arlene Ackerman received a $905,000 buyout.  She then applied for unemployment.

There are numerous examples of education bureaucrats' bizarre behavior.  Otis Mathis had to resign as President of the Detroit School Board after allegations that he fondled himself during a meeting with a school superintendent.  Why she did not get up and leave during this 20-minute incident is also curious.  Mathis was an inspiration to children because he could not read due to a "learning disability," yet he was a success.  Kenilworth school superintendent, Thomas Tramaglini, was charged with defecating in public.  Apparently this was part of his daily routine at the Holmdel High School football field.

No group has received more attention than African American students.  Yet according to the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress, only 18 percent of African-American fourth-graders were proficient in reading. The eighth-grade numbers were worse, with only 16 percent of African American students proficient in reading.  CNN has reported that there are many college athletes are functionally illiterate. It’s been estimated that 19% of high school graduates fall into that category.

Uniformed guards and metal detectors were not necessary in public schools generations ago.  

Now, an average 157,000 crimes are committed daily in public schools. 900 teachers are threatened daily with bodily harm.  Former Camden Mayor Milton Milan complained Camden's school system "relegates too many of our young men to criminal careers" and "lifetimes of dependency."  Who is running this system?  Is it the Mafia?  Is it white racists?  Or is it compassionate well funded  (per-pupil spending of $27,500 2014) experts?  Former Secretary of Education William Bennett  claimed, "So schools became laboratories, and students guinea pigs."  More and more parents are objecting to this.

Photo credit: PxHere

John Dietrich is a freelance writer and the author of The Morgenthau Plan: Soviet Influence on American Postwar Policy (Algora Publishing).  He has a Master of Arts Degree in International Relations from St. Mary’s University.  He is retired from the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.  He is featured on the BBC's program  "Things We Forgot to Remember:" Morgenthau Plan and post-war Germany.