Understanding the Extremist War on Public Education
How School Choice and the Pandemic Presaged the Theft of Our Children’s Future
This is the second essay in Civic Way’s series on primary and secondary education (see the last essay). In this essay, we discuss the key phases of the war on public education, and how the school choice movement is being hijacked and converted from a public-school reform initiative to an assault on public education. The author, Bob Melville, is the founder of Civic Way, a nonprofit dedicated to good government, and a management consultant with over 45 years of experience improving public agencies.
Highlights:
In at least 15 states, religious zealots and other extremists have declared war on public education and, even more disturbingly, enacted programs to redirect public funds and steal our children’s future.
The pandemic gave private school advocates a generational opportunity to persuade citizens to turn against public education and give private, religious and home schools another look.
Enacting universal private school voucher plans without public standards or oversight is the linchpin to the right-wing plan to replace public schools with private (and religious) schools.
Unmasking the War on Public Education
You don’t have to be an expert to educate a child… anybody can do it.
– Larry Arnn, Hillsdale College President and leading Christian school advocate
The scale of the extreme right’s campaign to destroy public education is breathtaking. It is so audacious and self-righteous that it can be hard for the humble among us to comprehend. And the stealth nature of the campaign—at least until recently—has left little time for public education supporters to fight back.
As we outlined in our last essay, the war on education entails five broad phases as follows:
Phase 1 – Fund, organize and mobilize the campaign
Phase 2 – Hijack the charter school movement
Phase 3 – Exploit pandemic fears to delegitimize public education
Phase 4 – Force private school voucher programs on an unsuspecting public
Phase 5 – Redirect public funds to private religious schools
The war on public education is national in scope, but to date it has gained the most ground in 15 or so states[i]. These states tend to have legislative bodies dominated by right-wing extremists. Not surprisingly, their legislative leaders have a reputation for blindly enacting bills crafted by prominent national organizations like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Civics Alliance, Goldwater Institute and Manhattan Institute.
The five major phases of the war on public education are described in more detail below.
Phase 1 – Fund, organize and mobilize the campaign
The chaos of the January 6th insurrectionists and folly of the election deniers notwithstanding, America’s right-wing extremists are strategic, disciplined and exceptionally well-funded. As evidenced by their frequent talking points, like wokeism and parental rights, they know how to message. As demonstrated by the grass-roots groups they have spawned, like the Tea Party, they know how to manage campaigns.
The school choice campaign is the most recent example.
The anti-public education movement, like other right-wing crusades that preceded it, was fueled by wealthy, politically-connected donors. Donors funded an interconnected network of institutes, politicians and lobbyists and established foundations to manage (and control) private school voucher and scholarship programs[ii]. Leaders cultivated national, state and local political alliances with churches, businesses and private schools. They recruited lawyers to represent private schools, file amicus briefs and sue public school districts (and unions).
With the networks in place, the troops were unleashed. Rallies for the uninitiated. Workshops for recruits. Financing for private school construction. The weaponization of rage (like the Moms of Liberty). The neutralization of potential opponents like pro-education civic groups and public teacher associations. The production and enactment of cookie cutter legislation. The whitewashing of US history. The constant repetition of vacuous slogans like CRT and grooming. The intimidation of public educators and school districts[iii].
Phase 2 – Hijack the charter school movement
The public charter school took off with strong bipartisan support. Public charter schools were envisioned as a reform initiative, an innovative option to traditional public schools. A way to help students who didn’t flourish in traditional public schools.
Central to the promise of public charter schools was the word public. A focus on serving all children. A mission of improving quality and closing racial achievement gaps. Open enrollment, impartial admissions, secular, evidence-based academics and free tuition. More operational independence but within the context of greater accountability. Public funding but with rigorous public standards and oversight.
Public charter school growth seemed to confirm their initial promise. Many families found public charter schools appealing. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, enrollment doubled from 1.8 million to 3.7 million from 2010-11 to 2021-22 [iv]. By 2021, about seven percent of all public-school students attended public charter schools with some jurisdictions experiencing even higher participation rates[v].
In some states, especially those controlled by political extremists, the public charter school movement has morphed into something far less noble. In states deemphasizing the public purpose of charter schools, the experiment was far more likely to fail. Instead of trying to test and refine the idea, extremists have sought to corrupt it for ideological ends. Blurring the lines between public and private, some politicians seem bound and determined to abandon public goals, standards and oversight.
Phase 3 – Exploit pandemic fears to delegitimize public education
Perhaps the most heinous aspect of the war on public education has been the willingness of its leaders to exploit a global health crisis. Instead of seeking a thoughtful debate about pandemic planning and countermeasures, demagogues have prayed on fears about mask mandates and school closures to delegitimize public education.
Evoking the time-honored ploys of fascist regimes, the anti-public education leaders have fashioned issues out of whole cloth. They have spewed contrivances like wokeness and transgender grooming. Without evidence, they have attacked public schools and vilified teachers and school administrators alike. They have invented any wedge issues—like public education for immigrant children—that could help undermine civic faith in public education. The callous immorality of such conduct, especially given its impact on children, is revolting.
The war on education does have a gift for catchy rallying cries. School choice is one. Another is parental rights. Such slogans seem so reasonable at first glance. However, freed from the constraints of a moral compass, some extremists cannot resist using such slogans for contemptible or preposterous ends. Parental rights, for example, is used by some to justify the banning of books or the parental approval of lesson plans.
The overall objectives of this phase are clear. Turn more parents against public schools. Drive more teachers from teaching. Intimidate school board officials. Spur educators and families to flee public schools.
And when families abandon public schools, where will they go? Private, religious and home schools. To illustrate, from 2019-20 to 2021-22, homeschooling increased dramatically, especially among minority households[vi]. According to the US Census Bureau, the ratio of homeschooled students rose from 2.8 percent in 2019 to 5.4 percent in 2022. Homeschooling may work for some, but is this what we want for our nation’s children?
Phase 4 – Force private school voucher programs on an unsuspecting public
Private school voucher programs are the cornerstone of the war on public education. They may be sold to gullible voters as market-based school choice programs but, simply put, many voucher programs are a scheme for diverting public funds to private schools, and without controls. By paying parents to trade public schools for private schools, these programs will be the death knell for public schools.
So, let’s follow the money.
There are two major types of private school aid programs: 1) Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), which enable parents to use state-funded vouchers for private (or home) school costs, and 2) education tax credits for donations to scholarship granting organizations (SGOs) which, in turn, pay the eligible private school expenses of students and families.
According to the American Federation for Children, state vouchers average about $4,600 a year. However, many of the universal voucher programs carry higher annual price tags (e.g., Florida’s vouchers cost about $8,500). Since the average annual private school tuition cost is $12,350, school vouchers typically cover a modest share of private school costs. Since state and local governments spend about $13,930 per student, most children leaving public schools would initially cost public schools less than the full per-pupil allocation.
Voucher programs are not without precedent. After the US Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling, southern states funded vouchers to help white students attend private segregation academies. In 1990, Wisconsin launched the first modern-era private school voucher program. Since the early 1990s, several states have launched small pilot programs (usually with eligibility limits and expenditure caps).
In the last two decades or so, conservatives have become enamored with private school voucher programs. GOP-controlled states have eagerly expanded pilot programs even if not fully tested. In Wisconsin, for example, despite uncertain results, Governor Walker expanded the state’s voucher program, broadening eligibility, lifting enrollment caps and increasing private school subsides.
In 2022, Arizona enacted the nation’s first universal voucher program and Florida expanded ESAs for private and home schools. They aren’t the only ones. At least ten other states have launched or expanded school voucher and tax credit programs[vii]. Even when state have tiptoed into the arena of school vouchers, they often expand their program later, expanding eligibility criteria and boosting program costs.
From a national perspective, the private school voucher programs still affect a relatively small share of total K-12 pupils. Last year, according to EdChoice, over 600,000 students participated in voucher/ESA or scholarship tax credit programs. However, table is set for expansion. Most states fund voucher programs in some form. And, in 2023, several other states—including North Carolina—have considered voucher/tax credit proposals. If extremists have their way, such programs could very well proliferate.
Phase 5 – Redirect public funds to religious schools
While we have found innocuous ways to aid private religious schools, the separation of church and state is central to the American Idea. Throughout our history, most of us have accepted that our nation is stronger and our religious institutions healthier when the line between church and state is honored. Until recently, there seemed a national consensus that religious schools should be protected but not subsidized.
Of course, consensus is not the same as unanimity. Many evangelical leaders have long disdained the separation of church and state. Many self-professed Christians have embraced homeschooling as an anecdote to godlesspublic schools. According to Michael Farris, the founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), an influential homeschool advocate, “the homeschooling movement will succeed when our children, the Joshua Generation, engage wholeheartedly in the battle to take the land.”
In recent years, many religious leaders have redoubled their efforts to replace public schools with religious schools. They have tried to rebrand religious schools as symbols of religious freedom. They have proclaimed that schools should focus more on instilling moral values than teaching job skills. They have funded the development of biblically based civic education programs. Enshrining universal private school voucher plans without public standards or oversight is the linchpin to these efforts.
The US Supreme Court is more than willing to provide legal cover. In its 2021 Carson v. Makin ruling, the Court held that no state can deny public aid to religious schools if it provides public aid to other private schools. In effect, the ruling could force states to help fund all private schools or none at all. This may be a bewildering—and crude—way to promote school choice, but it is a thunderous validation of religious education.
To be continued…