WE THE PEEPS 1: 2021-07-25

Is Education a culture of its own?

Def: CULTURE [1]

: the beliefs, customs, arts, etc., of a particular society, group, place, or time

: a particular society that has its own beliefs, ways of life, art, etc.

: a way of thinking, behaving, or working that exists in a place or organization (such as a business)

Let’s have a look…

Could education be considered its own culture? I’m inclined to answer “yes” to that question. The fact is our public education system is available to all who qualify. That is a sizeable number of participants and Public Education may indeed be the largest segment of this Country’s culture/society.

I, for one, lose sleep wondering and imagining where our Public Education system is going. For some of us who remember the past six decades, our public school system ran under Federal protocols that had no problem producing doctors, lawyers, scientists, engineers, and the like. Were there inequities from State to State? Yes, there were some “off the rails” interpretations of Federal guidelines.

Starting in 2000, it didn’t take long, and by 2005 our Federal Congress started seriously trying to fix something that wasn’t broken. Mismanaged and frayed around the edges, yes, but not broken. In true fashion, Congress did not make this fix a priority all on their own. As in life, so it is in politics. Money rules the day. So, just follow the money to identify the “players”. Keep in mind that this was about the time that “corporations” started taking over control of our Federal Prison system, too. By 2005, they had their greedy little eyes drawn on the education system. So, for the sake of their corporations, privatizing every damn Federal Institution was on the table to be taken over by the private sector (The Department of Veterans Affairs being the most prominent on the list).

I usually don’t focus on empirical numbers; it makes my head hurt. However, when I started perusing the numbers on our education system, I had no option than to pay attention. Let’s look at a few of these numbers as they are pertinent to a disappearing part of our overall culture.

How many public schools:

There are 130,930 K-12 schools in the U.S., according to 2017-18 data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Here’s how they break down:

All: 130,930

Elementary schools: 87,498

Secondary schools: 26,727

Combined schools: 15,804

Other: 9

Traditional public schools: 91,276 (2017-18, Source)

Public charter schools: 7,427 (2018-19, Source)

Private schools: 32,461 (2017-18, Source)

There are 13,551 regular school districts in the U.S. (2017-18, Source)

How many students attend public schools?

In America’s public schools, there are over 50.6 million students, based on federal projections for the fall of 2021.

How many students attend charter schools?

According to data from three years earlier, almost 3.3 million public school students, or 6.5 percent of all public-school students, attend charter schools.

How many students attend private schools? What are the religious affiliations of those schools?

In total, 5,719,990 students attend private schools, according to NCES 2017 data.

37.4% of those in Catholic schools

24.4% in nonsectarian (non-religious) schools

15.2% in un-affiliated religious schools

12.0% in conservative Christian schools

11.1% in other religiously affiliated schools

Note: numbers may not add to 100 due to rounding.

How many students are home schooled?

There are an estimated 1,755,233 homeschooled students. That’s 3.23 percent of all students, according to NCES 2019 data. After doubling between 1999 and 2012, the number of homeschooled students in the United States appears to have leveled off. So, who are the nation’s homeschoolers? This overview of homeschooling includes more information on the topic. [2]

Have we already gone.......

From This……............To This?

The “Center for Media & Democracy” (CMD) has taken up the cause of exposing the wonderful folks who are bringing us to the end of Public Education. I recall the days when “Charter Schools” were all the rage, and listening to the call that this was going to be the saving grace for our Nation’s education system. Well, looks like they are finally getting their cake and eating it, too. The CMD has launched a project called “OutsourcingAmericaExposed.org”. They’ve come up with an initial accounting of twelve corporations that have made serious inroads on the take-over of our Public Schools. It is not lost that, coincidently, our State and Federal prison system is being taken over in a similar fashion.

“No, a little “consulting” firm called K12, Inc. has nothing to do with mountains in Nepal. They have everything to do with little Johnny’s kindergarten through twelfth grade education. The corporate classroom is where our children and grandchildren are headed to be educated exactly how the owners of this Country see fit. Only one small glitch so far. They haven’t been experiencing much success.

With only ¼ of their schools making the grade, they are struggling to meet even the least strenuous State and Federal criteria. What these grifters do extremely well is get paid. One of these grifters took in a cool $19 million for 2013 (according to their 10-k report). The same report boasts of $848.2 million in gross income for 2013 with $730.8 million coming from their “managed public schools”. You may ask, “Where the Hell do they get this kind of money?” The answer isn’t going to surprise you, but it sure as Hell better concern you. This money comes from diverted educational funds allocated by the U.S. Congress. Yup! Your tax dollars are funding this supposedly capitalistic venture in educating our youth.”

According to a release by the Center for Media and Democracy, there are twelve major players, so far, making “phatt” money off the spoils of Federal taxation. When was the last time you ran into a teacher who was making $19 million, and whose company investors were the likes of Mike Milken and Wall St. investment firms?........................... I didn’t think so! [3]

By looking at the sheer numbers involved and the definition of “culture”, our public education system certainly can be considered a culture. The big difference here is that most cultures this large take many hundreds of years to change their core principles and lifestyle. We seem to be doing it in mere decades. It’s simply wonderful how quickly life moves along, when it’s packed with enough greenbacks!

If children can’t learn the way we teach,