ONE FORM OF SEGREGATION STILL PERSISTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Do all high school teachers hate capitalism? Or just the ones in
By now, you’ve probably heard of geography teacher Jay
Bennish and his 60’s-era classroom rants.
Bennish delivered a 20-minute “lesson” to his 10th graders, comparing
Bush to Hitler, decrying the evils of capitalism, and blasting
What you may not know is that we have our own issues closer
to home. Just last year, a retiring
social studies teacher honored at
It’s tempting to blame the comfortably-left-of-center
politics of public school teachers on some sort of conspiracy. To be sure, politics play a role. Public school teachers are the largest single
occupation represented at Democratic Party functions (over 500 delegates at the
1996 Democratic convention were teachers).
Normally progressive Democrats are reactionary when it comes to
vouchers, because public school teachers are a key Democratic constituency.
Teaching in the public schools is also normally a lifetime
job. After a short probationary period,
you get a job forever as long as you don’t commit a felony (and even then the
union can pull a few strings). People
tend to hire and promote people who think like they do, so it’s no wonder
there’s not much ideological variety.
Labor unions, after all, are about solidarity. Diversity of thought is not a priority.
But there’s more to it than politics. Suppose you’re young, idealistic, and
entrepreneurial. You understand
economics, you appreciate freedom, maybe you’ve got
some science, math or business skills.
It’s a cruel fact that you’re probably not going to teach high
school. You’re probably going to work
for a company, or maybe start your own.
That’s a great thing, but it’s also a shame.
It’s a shame because by choosing a career in the private
sector (where you will certainly make more money), you are ceding territory to
people who think capitalism is evil, corporations are criminal, and America is
a warmongering imperialist bully set on conquering the world. These people are more than happy to accept a
teacher’s salary in exchange for a lifetime of opportunity to influence
children to carry on the Great Work of the Left.
What to do? There are
a couple of things that can help.
American children in public schools will never be exposed to teachers
with diverse opinions until concerted efforts are made to pay people with
expertise in math, science and economics something closer to what they can get
in the private sector. Those careers are
far less politicized and attract people with a far wider range of views.
The same goes with hiring retired engineers, military,
business executives, and other professionals who are looking for a chance to
share what they know with
But those solutions will take a lot of work, and they’ll be
fought tooth and nail by the powers that be.
There’s something that can be done right here, right now, and that
doesn’t cost any money at all.
You can call me.
Call me, or any of my colleagues at the Independence
Institute, and we’ll come to your classroom.
We’ll explain why
So call us. Think of
it as an affirmative action program to bring advocates of markets, freedom and
choice to a school near you. American
schools used to be segregated by race, to our national shame. American schools are still segregated, but
this time by ideas. Free-market
economics, support for vouchers, and belief in the greatness of
It’s time to break that color line.