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At
an April 4 rally that wound from Virginia Commonwealth
University
to the State Capitol in downtown Richmond,
1,000 people, many of them students, poured out
their support for greater education funding. Bearing
signs that stated, “Education First,” and
“Full SOQ Funding,” they attempted to make the
case that not enough money is being spent on K-12 or
higher education.
It
would be nice if someone had taught the students to
acquaint themselves with the facts. The state’s
own accounting agency, the Joint Legislative Audit
and Review Commission (JLARC), has compiled
statistics that refute their claim. According to the
JLARC Review of State Spending: June 2002 Update,
between 1981 and 1997 the inflation-adjusted
budget for public elementary and secondary schools
increased almost 10 times faster than enrollment.
The JLARC report also states that between 1981 and
2000, four-year public college and university
budgets increased more than four times faster than
enrollment. You will find these statistics on page
11 of the report.
If
you are reading this article, you now know more
about education funding than the overwhelming
majority of the public. But you might not know more
than some of the ringleaders of the so-called
“education” rally. Seeing the photographs of the
event in The
Commonwealth Times, the VCU student newspaper, I
noticed several VCU students, at least one of whom
was a former English 200 student of mine. What
struck me next were the photographs of VEA President
Jean Bankos, Virginia Education Association (VEA)
Vice President Princess Moss, and Del. James H.
Dillard, R-Fairfax. These are people who serve a
political agenda that has little if anything to do
with education.
Moss
and Bankos represent the organization that opposed a
bill in the 2003 Virginia General Assembly that
would have given at-risk students in failing public
schools the opportunity to attend another school.
They belong to an establishment that does not
support phonics-based reading programs, which have
been proven to be the most effective method to teach
students to read. It is worth noting that in the
song the students sang to the tune of “Oh When the
Saints Go marching In, the lyrics included: “I
want reading programs that work/To help our children
learn.”
What
have Moss and Bankos done to address the epidemic
violence in inner-city public schools? For those who
have never taught in them, as I have, I will tell
you that riots, fires, bomb threats, and violent
threats against teachers and students are
commonplace. I want to stress the word
“commonplace.” During my two years as a
secondary school educator in Virginia
(1998-2000) the VEA did nothing to tackle these
problems. They have still done nothing on the school
violence front.
Dillard’s
contribution to the event was to claim that “the
state is broke.” He has to say this because,
though a Republican, he is a relentless supporter of
tax increases. But we should ask ourselves, is a $52
billion two-year budget above the federal poverty
level?
So,
our VCU students participated in a rally that they
believed was for improving education but was little
more than a performance to promote the power of a
government union. The VEA supports higher taxes,
opposes educational choice and gives heavily to the
Democratic Party. Its agenda is political not
educational. I am certain that Moss, Bankos and
Dillard know the real agenda. The sad fact, though,
is that the students who marched on the Capitol
probably had no idea what they were really
supporting. Far from supporting education, they were
serving the agenda of an entrenched interest group
opposes any measure, such as school choice, that
might undermine its power. How would the VEA make up
for its loss of union dues when teachers flee to
private schools where they can teach instead of
serve as classroom police officers?
The
Soviet dictator V.I. Lenin had a term for Western
academics and journalists who could be counted on to
parrot party-line lies: “useful idiots.” It
hurts me to invoke this term when speaking of VCU
students, some of whom I know. But they are useful
idiots precisely because they possess sentiment
without knowledge of the facts.
What
should students do instead? They should start by
demanding that the billions of dollars that the
Commonwealth spends on education every year are well
spent. They should insist on seeing a line-by-line
breakdown of where the money is going. And then they
should challenge the government to cut wasteful
programs. One that I have in mind is the state
mandate that requires a full-time guidance counselor
for every 500 elementary school students. This costs
the citizens of Virginia
more than $40 million per year. Is this mandate
necessary or even desirable?
But
let’s take informed student activism to the next
stage. Imagine if the students were not only
educated about the facts but understood how
political power works. What would they have done?
They would not have served as pawns of the
government unions. Instead, in the fall of 2002 they
would have opposed the bond referendum for higher
education unless tuition costs were frozen or
reduced. The government education establishment
would not have given in to their demands. But a
large statewide organization of students would have
seized public attention and perhaps impacted the
vote total. The bond referendum would have passed
even in the face of fierce student resistance, but
an intelligent and visible fight would have given
the student organization some measure of political
power. Will it ever happen? Probably not. Most
undergraduates have not had enough real world
experience to understand politics.
Then,
I must confess that I, too, was once young and
naive. As a 15-year-old in 1983, I was concerned
about the dangers of nuclear war. I participated in
a nuclear freeze march, not realizing that the
agenda I supported did nothing for peace but did
play into the hands of the Soviet propaganda
machine. Later I realized that what kept our country
from war and eventually led to the toppling of the
Soviet system was the strong leadership of President
Ronald Reagan.
“Oh when the students learn the facts.
When
the students learn the facts.
They
will learn education is well-funded.
When
the students learn the facts.”
--
April 14, 2003
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