Republicans Want to "Defund the Schools"

Even though all but a few activists have rejected the notion of "defunding the police," Republicans continue to pretend that it is a core tenet of the Democratic Party. Meanwhile, there is a coordinated strategy on the right to "defund the schools" (they've even got t-shirts).

One example would be the 11-point plan put out by Senator Rick Scott (R-FL), who currently chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee. His blueprint includes this: "We will close the federal Department of Education. Education is a state function." That would eliminate the $79 billion the federal government spends on schools - with funding primarily focused on schools with high concentrations of low income families and special education.

Of course, the more insidious approach to defunding the schools has been the attacks on everything from measures to slow the spread of coronavirus to fear-mongering about the teaching of critical race theory and sexual orientation. The fever pitch of these scare tactics has now led to claims that anyone who doesn't join their "don't say gay" campaign is actually "pro-pedophile."

As someone who has worked to protect vulnerable children for most of my adult life, you can call me skeptical about the idea that a party that has only shown "concern" about children prior to birth is all of the sudden on a bandwagon to protect them once they come out of the womb. And of course, that skepticism is well-grounded. 

One report after another has identified the dark money behind the so-called "parental rights groups" that have been highlighted in the media. There is a clear agenda behind all of that money.

Staffers from such organizations as “Moms for Liberty,” “Parents Defending Education” and the “Independent Women’s Forum” have been featured in right-wing media as “concerned parents” attacking public schools without disclosing their positions in dark money-funded organizations.

These “parent” groups appear to have joined the decades-long coordinated dark money effort to dismantle public education. Rather than focusing explicitly on promoting privatization, they have attacked public schools — going after masking policies, remote learning and evidence-based curricula they dislike.

Chief among these dark money groups is the Koch Network - which is made up of 700 people who each contribute a minimum of $100,000 per year. Here's what one of those donors said about their focus on schools:

“The lowest hanging fruit for policy change in the United States today is K-12,” said Stacy Hock, a major Koch donor who has co-founded a group called Texans for Educational Opportunity. “I think this is the area that is most glaringly obvious.”

Here's what the director of Texans for Educational Opportunity said about the organization:

[T]he group’s main goal is to get Texas lawmakers to create “education savings accounts” — a program under which the state would dole out taxpayer money directly to parents via debit card to cover approved education-related expenses, like private school tuition, tutors or homeschooling materials.

In other words, the "low hanging fruit for policy change" is all about diverting taxpayer dollars away from public schools so that parents can send their kids to private and religious schools. 

Here is what Christopher Leonard, the author of “Kochland, the Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America,” identified as the network's political philosophy:

Government is bad. Public education must be destroyed for the good of all American citizens in this view.

So the ultimate goal is to dismantle the public education system entirely and replace it with a privately run education system, which the operatives in this group believe in a sincere way is better for everybody. Now, whether you agree with that or not as the big question, but we cannot have any doubt, there's going to be a lot of glossy marketing materials about opportunity, innovation, efficiency. At its core though the network seeks to dismantle the public education system because they see it as destructive. So that is what's the actual aim of this group. And don't let them tell you anything different.

A dismantling of our public education system is what these dark money groups are all about. That fits in nicely with the goal of Christian nationalists, who make up the majority of the MAGA base. As Katherine Stewart documented, one of the founders of that movement is Rousas Rushdooney, who taught that the federal government is an agent of evil and public education, according to the Bible, is a threat to civilization.

We can expect that the attacks on public schools will continue. The most recent iteration of that started with fear-mongering about critical race theory. It then moved to claims that teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity amount to "grooming." Christopher Rufo, who has been at the heart of these scare tactics, has now moved on to claims that public schools are breeding grounds for child sexual abuse. 

[T]he facts reveal that too many American public schools have been hunting grounds for sexual predators. Parents fearful about abuse in schools are not falling victim to a “moral panic” or “QAnon messaging”; they are using their intuition to assess a real danger to their children.

Rufo goes on to cite data about the number of children who are sexually abused by school personnel. What he doesn't tell you is that the number (6.7%) is actually a less than the percentage of children who are sexually abused in society (10%). He also doesn't tell you that approximately 30% of children who are sexually abused are abused by family members. That number goes up to 50% for children under 6. 

The sexual abuse of children in our culture is horrifying no matter where it happens. But here's what we know about how to prevent it:

Research shows that the two most effective ways to prevent abuse are education and training of adults and skills training in children. When school-based programs are used in conjunction with parental involvement, they produce more benefits than either approach does individually...

When focusing on children, the goals are to increase their knowledge and use of strategies that prevent victimization and to create an empowering atmosphere that leads to increased disclosure rates. Studies indicate that the likelihood of a child reporting abuse is a significant deterrent to perpetrators, and perpetrators may be less likely to victimize a child with high self-esteem who appears less vulnerable.

Issuing gag orders about what can/can't be talked about in school and/or completely dismantling public education are good ways to ensure that more children are sexually abused. 

Most Republicans aren't being open about this agenda to defund the schools. Instead, they continue to fan the flames of fear-mongering that undermines public trust in our institutions as a way to eventually eliminate them. I would suggest that it's high time we put a spotlight on what they're up to.