Sabotage and Hypocrisy

We have two awards to present today. First, a positive one for language usage.

WHAT'S ACTUALLY HAPPENING AWARD

It’s NOT Education Reform – It’s School Sabotage

Steven Singer (Gadflyonthewall Blog) has found the perfect label to describe what's happening to America's public education system. So-called "reformers" aren't reforming anything. They're destroying public education through starvation. Singer's title, "School Sabotage" is perfect.

Here's an internet definition of sabotage. It reads,

n. Destruction of property or obstruction of normal operations, as by civilians or enemy agents in time of war.
n. Treacherous action to defeat or hinder a cause or an endeavor; deliberate subversion.
v. To commit sabotage against.

The second meaning is the one that's most apropos for what's happening to public education. It's deliberate and treacherous. It's aim is to destroy public education.

The saboteurs of public education

• claim that public schools are failing and that teachers are at fault.

• then, use the false narrative of failing public schools to pass laws which damage public education further and make the teaching profession less attractive.

• then, because of the resulting teacher shortage, lower the qualifications for teachers in order to find enough bodies to fill classroom positions.

• then, redirect tax dollars from public schools to private and privately run schools, further starving public schools.

• then, support tax cuts which benefit the wealthy and reduce the amount of money available for public services, like public education.

• then, blame the decimated and demoralized teaching force for not increasing student achievement in underfunded and under-resourced schools.

"...Education Sabotage – because that's really what it is."

From Steven Singer

Henceforth, “Education Reform” shall be Education Sabotage – because that’s really what it is.

It is about deliberately obstructing goods and services that otherwise would help kids learn and repurposing them for corporate benefit.

Likewise, I propose we stop using the term “School choice.” Instead, call it what it is – School Privatization.

HYPOCRISY AWARD

The second award goes to the NRA...for flagrant and unadulterated hypocrisy.

NRA Convention Bans Guns To Protect Mike Pence. Parkland Survivors’ Jaws Drop: Parkland teens are calling out the gun group for hypocrisy.

The NRA Convention, set to convene this week in Dallas, has gone along with the Secret Service requirement to ban weapons during Vice President Pence's visit.

The teens at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, have called them out for their hypocrisy.

Teens who survived the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, where 17 people were killed, are wondering why the NRA fiercely resists extending the same safety considerations to other areas to safeguard children. The NRA wants “guns everywhere” when it comes to kids, tweeted Matt Deitsch, a Parkland student who helped organize the March for Our Lives rally for stricter gun laws in Washington.

Arming teachers seems to be the most popular NRA-backed "solution" to mass school shootings. The Trump administration wants to "harden school security" with

"rigorous" firearms training for "specially qualified" school personnel

The NRA blames mass shootings on the media and thinks that armed school personnel is the answer to school shootings. As Wayne LaPierre has so famously said,

The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.

Did anyone in the NRA notice that they're not allowed to take guns into their own convention? The children at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School noticed.

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