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According to University of Pennsylvania professor Michael Katz, "Welfare is the most despised public institution in America. Public education is the most iconic. To associate them with each other will strike most Americans as bizarre, even offensive." Let’s take a closer look at that bizarre, offensive association.

 

Bulletin Board

  • The E.A. Morris Fellowship for Emerging Leaders is now accepting applications for the 2010-2011 class. Applicants must be between the ages of 25 and 40, reside in North Carolina, and commit to a yearlong program of activities designed to examine, develop, and enhance their leadership skills. There is no cost to individuals accepted into the program. For additional information, please visit the E.A. Morris website at http://www.eamorrisfellows.org.

  • Become a member of JLF’s Freedom Clubs! We have seven regional clubs covering every part of North Carolina, so there is one near you and your like-minded conservative friends. For more information, visit https://www.johnlocke.org/support.

  • Are you a busy school board member looking to enhance your professional development but don’t want to miss a full day of work to do so? The John W. Pope Civitas Institute will be offering school board member training on Friday, November 12 from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Crabtree in Raleigh. If you register by November 5, the cost is $50 (includes lunch). If you register after November 5, the cost is $60. Speakers include Kaye McGarry, member of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education; Jason Kay, attorney at the Institute for Constitutional Law; and Tammi Sutton, Principal and Founder of Gaston College Prep charter school. For additional information and to register visit www.nccivitas.org/events.

 

Are you kidding me?

In the Summer 2010 issue of the leftist magazine Dissent, Michael Katz asks a provocative question, "how does public education fit into the architecture of the U.S. welfare state?" It is a question worth serious consideration. As Katz points out, a comparison of the public school and welfare systems may help us to better understand the political and social consequences of the systems’ primary commonality — wealth redistribution.

Katz begins his analysis by focusing on the reasons why Americans are reluctant to consider public education as a form of welfare; that is, why they find the association to be bizarre and offensive. Nineteenth-century education reformers like Horace Mann sought to downplay the redistributive character of public education and underscore its problem-solving potential. The key to this effort was persuading the wealthy, who had resisted tax-supported schools for decades, that public education would produce a healthy return on their investment by lowering crime rates, training workers, and assimilating immigrants (sometimes called "neighborhood effects"). Reformers’ efforts were so successful that Americans universally disregarded the social welfare function of public education — the redistribution of resources — and formulated a sentimental, often naive, commitment to government schools.

As public education in the United States evolved, it developed forms of governance (local) and finance (property taxes) that differed from state and federal social welfare programs. Katz finds that public education does not fit neatly within the framework of the nation’s convoluted welfare system, but he finds parallels between the historical reform efforts of the two institutions. He observes, "Because of its differences from both social insurance and public assistance, public education composes a separate division within the public welfare state. But it moves in the same directions as the rest. The forces redefining the American welfare state have buffeted public schools as well as public assistance, social insurance, and private welfare" (p. 55).

I do not agree with his entire argument, particularly his musings on the reproduction of inequality and the failure of the free market. What do you expect from a magazine that champions soft-core socialism? Nevertheless, Katz makes a compelling case that — public education and social welfare systems combined — the United States is not a welfare laggard, but one of the world’s largest welfare states.

 

Facts and Stats

Race to the Top federal grant allocations for FY 2010-2011:

  • High: $15,098,085 (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools)
  • Average: $1,560,006
  • Low: $0 (45 charter schools)

 

Mailbag

Thank you for your support regarding the local school boards decision to defy a STATE LAW known as Lindsey’s Law (HB 3393).

We are these children’s parents and we know when things are not working. Just as a mom can tell when a child has a fever by placing a hand on their head … we just know. We are advocating for our child today and we will be advocating for our child tomorrow — public or private, religious or non. It doesn’t matter, first and foremost we are parents.

Any help you can give our cause in getting the word out regarding their crazy behavior is appreciated. The more heat these school boards feel is extremely important. I would also like to add that we still have a chance to make Tulsa Public comply. They do not vote until Monday. They are the largest district in the state and we are almost certain that the other districts were banking on having their fiscal support for defending the lawsuits from the parents. The attorney plans on billing based on student enrollment so this means that TPS would stand to pay the most.

PLEASE HELP US — We agree the law has flaws … lets work together to make it better; not just defy it to settle some score.

Amanda Murrell
An IEP Parent in Tulsa (OK) Public Schools

 

Education Acronym of the Week

SES — Socioeconomic Status

 

Quote of the Week

"The neighborhood is the prime community; it certainly is so for the children and youth who are educated in the school, and it must be so for administrators and teachers if the idea of socially functioning schools is to take on flesh and blood. There is no occasion for fear that the local community will not provide roads leading out into wider human relations if the opportunities it furnishes are taken advantage of."

– John Dewey, Foreword to Elsie Ripley Clapp, Community Schools in Action, 1939