Defend Public Education from the Radical Right
The Radical Right wants to dismantle the American Department of Education as part of its crusade against "big government."
The dismantling won't be outright, but more like a death-by-a-thousand cuts. The radicals use "parents' rights" and "deregulating homeschooling"--both outgrowths of the conservative homeschooling movement--to weaken our education system.
Yet these same homeschool proponents often rely on materials adapted from our public education system. More importantly, we all need and benefit from having an educated citizenry.
Public education is an investment we collectively make in the well-being and potential of all our children. Help defend public education, and fight the radical right's attempt to take apart this common good.
I am writing to you to speak on behalf of public education in the United States. Specifically, I urge you to resist attempts by some to dismantle the Department of Education.
Currently, the Department of Education administers grants to the states in accord with federal education policy passed by Congress. It collects data tracking student and teacher performance. It has some say in accreditation for public schools and teacher training programs. In short, it performs many valuable functions, and calls for its abolition are extreme and counterproductive.
[Your comments]
Public education is an investment we collectively make in the well-being and potential of all our children, necessary for good citizenship. Please make sure that it is defended from those who would take it apart.
