America is awakening. We are tired of “misguided” public servants constantly making things worse… for no good reason other than being trapped in a foolish ideology. And since the proof is often in the pudding, local public schools are hemorrhaging students while the unions representing their bloated workforce are insisting that staffing levels remain the same and that practically empty schools remain open.

This is really nothing new… it’s just become more pervasive. Some years ago, I attended a lecture by former Secretary of Education under Reagan, William Bennett. He talked about a visit he made to Chicago, where he was taken to a school that had no students. He said that the bells still managed to ring, and announcements continued to be made over the P.A. system. What the staff did all day was anybody’s guess.

But something has changed. Trump’s re-election wasn’t just about Trump. America is waking up to finally understand what is wrong with our public sector, including the government-run schools. For starters, what ability does the government have to educate young people? Answer: The only ability the government has for it to educate young people is its ability to collect taxes. Whatever the government does gets perverted by politics. Schools in the urban cores are forbidden to fail students who meet certain identity criteria. Also, teachers who have poor records of achievement are typically transferred to the inner cities as an incentive for others to stay out of trouble. Hence, we have sixteen-year-olds who read and calculate at fourth grade levels… if at all.

Education isn’t dead… just the government’s role in it. Here in Oakland, a popular private high school is one of the Catholic persuasion called Bishop O’Dowd. And it’s not just their football team that attracts paying families. Actually about 30% of their students are Jewish… hence the nickname Rabbi O’Dowd. San Francisco is facing the same problem. While the teachers’ union is adamant about keeping all schools open and imposing zero layoffs. The decline in enrollment is falsely attributed to 1) declining birth rate and 2) increasing out-migration. You have to dig fairly deeply to learn that about 40% of San Francisco’s children attend private schools… which is about four times the overall state average.

Years ago, a televised debate pitted a local community activist named Angela Blackwell against the late, beloved Milton Friedman. The topic was school choice… or, rather vouchers. Friedman made the audacious claim that inner-city residents were in strong support of vouchers. Blackwell took issue. She said, “Not the inner-city people I know.” Friedman just looked at her with his Nobel laureate eyes and said that Gallup polling for several years has shown extremely strong support for school choice in the inner cities. This is, of course, because those folks are the primary victims of the corrupt monopoly.

Lurking behind the MAGA electoral success, along with several other issues, is the horrible record of public schooling. It’s easy to bring up imposed political bias perpetrated by the self-serving teachers’ unions. But just the lack of basic mental skills along with failing to instill the seed of critical thought is enough for a conclusive indictment.

Educating the young and curious is an ancient task. It is more than just an anomaly that our culture is failing at this traditional obligation. In colonial Connecticut, parents who failed to facilitate their childrens’ education were pilloried. Today the parents are not to blame. It is the political establishment and their most convenient ATM machine: the teachers unions.

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