Linda Darling-Hammond, a Stanford University professor and the current president of the California State Board of Education, is heading up Joe Biden’s education transition team. She is a big fan of the Chinese Communist Party’s state-run education system. The Washington Free Beacon reported that she praised China for its “magical work” in creating a unified and robust teacher-government presence in student life. Well, there is no doubt the government has a robust presence in the life of students -- and every other citizen. She is also on record commending China for dramatically increasing public funding of education. That is easy to do when you confiscate most of what the public earns. In a 2017 book, she proclaimed: "Teachers in China are revered as elders, role models, and those whom parents entrust to shape the future of their children. In the Tao traditions of ritual, the phrase 'heaven-earth-sovereign-parent-teacher' is repeated and becomes ingrained in how people see themselves holistically governed and supported." They certainly are “holistically governed.” “Sovereign” refers to Chinese President Xi Jinping, who does whatever the hell he wants, not to the people, who are anything but “sovereign.”

The CCP routinely sends agents into classrooms to oversee things and snuff out any possible dissemination of western values or “improper” remarks. Oddly enough, that is just what happens in our own schools! Moreover, Xi Jinping has declared that China's systems of higher education must "serve the Communist Party in its management of the country,” and that "adherence to the Party's leadership is essential to the development of higher education in the country." Oddly enough, that is just what happens in our own schools, where students must toe the Democratic party line and conservative Republicans are universally considered to be enemies of the state. And the similarities don’t end there. In China, anyone who does not strictly adhere to the whims and mandates of the Communist Party is subject to swift punishment. In 2013, for example, a Chinese economist who dared to openly criticize the party was removed from his position at Peking University in Beijing. Hell, in the U.S., professors get the axe on a daily basis for having the temerity to espouse conservative positions. Reuters reported that Peking University subsequently “established a 24-hour system to monitor public opinion on the internet.” Universities don’t have to go to that trouble in the United States, as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, et. al. do that job for them.

Darling-Hammond has reportedly long been on Harris’ Biden’s short list for Secretary of Education, but she recently removed herself from consideration, vowing that she is committed to staying in the People’s Republic of California, also known as West (East?) Beijing, and working with Democratic governor Gavin Newsom to achieve their goals for the State.

It appears that the Biden administration and the New Democratic-Socialist Party are committed to replicating the “magical work” the Chicoms have done with their education system. With one exception: you won’t find any talk of social justice warring, the LGBTQIA community or trans rights in a Chinese classroom.

Wasn’t it Confucius who said, “Power corrupts -- and absolute power corrupts absolutely?”

Maybe not.

But I know it wasn’t Gavin Newsome, Linda Darling-Hammond… or Eric Swalwell.  

Image: Pixabay