Political Destruction of American Education--- In 1971, Lewis Powell (before assuming his post as a Supreme Court Justice) authored a memo, now known as the Powell Memorandum, and sent it to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The title of the memo was “Attack on the American Free Enterprise System,” and in it he called on corporate America to take an increased role in shaping politics, law, and education in the United States--by increased lobbying and pressure on legislators to change their priorities. Starting in the early 1980s, (Ronald Reagan became President) shifting priorities forced public universities to increasingly rely on other sources of revenue. For example, in the University of Washington school system, state funding for schools decreased as a percentage of total public education budgets from 82% in 1989 to 51% in 2011.” State budget debates became platforms for conservatives to argue why certain disciplines such as sociology, history, anthropology, minority studies, language, and gender studies should be defunded, On one hand, through the argument that they were not offering students the “practical” skills needed for the job market, and second, to claim that taxes will go down by cutting educational funding. Now college is so insanely unaffordable that only the wealthiest students from the wealthiest of families can afford to go to the school debt free. Younger people may not know that for much of the 20th century many universities in the U.S. were free. In the mid- to late-1970s, College/University tuition was between 700 and 1,500 a year. Tuitions have increased, over 2000% since the 1970s. This is the most directly dangerous situation for our students: pulling them into crippling debt that will follow them to the grave. And now the conservatives want to eliminate much of the grant money and federal student loans – which then forces the student to obtain school loans a MUCH higher interest. With the lending companies becoming more like the “Pay day Loan” outfits that can charge as high as 400% (that’s right—4 TIMES the loan amount—in interest PER YEAR) Even “Public Primary and Secondary Education”—is suffering. School Funding---when you take the statistical abstracts of the United States—(US Census Bureau): You find that Red States and Blue States get about the SAME PERCENTAGE (45.4-Red States and 44.8-Blue States) of local vs State money for education. The REAL difference comes Red States—get almost 8% more of their money from property taxes (which is local money)—So any tax increase for education is voted on by the local residents-which results in nearly no tax increases for education in those red states.—But to double check—let’s look at the per capita cost of education to tax payers—In Red States—their per capita tax for education is--$ 16.50. While in the BLUE state—their per capita tax for education is $ 35.76—nearly a 54% increase in per person taxes for education. A survey of education funding examined 46 states -- where 95 percent of the countrys elementary and secondary students reside. (Delaware, Idaho, Indiana and Washington were excluded because the way they report funding data makes historical comparisons difficult, the researchers note.) Of the states studied, 37 have trimmed K-12 educational funding since last year, after adjusting for inflation -- 19 of those states cut funding by more than 5 percent, 7 cut funding by 10% and 4 cut funding for education by 20% (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities—08/08/2012) the United States ranks 55th in spending on education (as a percentage of GDP)—(UN Commission on Economic Development -2011) Looking back to before the recession, at least 30 states are funding schools at levels lower than they were in 2008. Four states cut funding for education more than 20%. The United States ranks 13th in funding of higher education which averages $ 36,000 and as high as $ 120,000 for a FOUR YEAR COLLEGE DEGREE)—While Finland, Sweden, Norway, Germany and Ireland provide full payment for 4 year college degrees. (Forbes—2012) U.S. public schools lag behind the schools of other developed countries in the areas of reading, math, and science. (Time Magazine, December 2008.)
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 11:19:34 +0000
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