"Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education."--Franklin D. Roosevelt Underneath the beauty and splendor of the maleficent rolling hills, lush landscapes, the roaring waters of the Mississippi river, to the golden fields- One cannot deny the splendor of the state of Missouri. We also can't deny the greatness this old state has produced through folks like Maya Angelou, Mark Twain, Josephine Baker, or the "Unsinkable" Molly Brown. But that greatness has diminished--Like a fire that slowly smothered out by the breath of corruption, the effort to move us back to the Victorian Era in the way of social standards, and calloused madness that has bled into our educational system. No, I'm not talking about the "Woke" crowd. I'm talking about the millions of dollars in business of "For-profit" schools aka private schools. One thing that Missourians have always prided themselves on was our robust and progressive education system in the state. At one time Missouri was one of the most progressive public educational systems in the entire US, but that started to change back in the mid-90s to early 2000s when the GOP started running unchecked in the state and the privatization of public schools became a hot social topic everywhere. Of course, most of us that fall in the age group of Generation X and Xennials can remember the experimental voucher programs that were first introduced to the "inner cities" and heavily populated metro areas back in the 90 that came to fail in the end. Here in Missouri, we have private groups like Herzog or folks like Jean Evans from the American Federation for Children [1] or billionaires like Rex Sinquefield trying to get their piece of the pie through collecting public funds for years here in Missouri. [2] This ultimately has had its negative impacts on our rural schools in a big way. [3] This leads to the national state where Betsy Devos (former Secretary of education from the Trump era) implied that "Rural kids should be more or less working out in the fields on the farms" instead of being in a classroom. [4] And now with the Missouri legislative branch, they have found a way to pull it off with consequences be damned [5] So let's get into some repercussions of their greed over everyone else. At the start of the school year this year, 1 in 4 school districts went to 4-day school weeks across the state due to teacher shortages and lack of funding to keep the doors open 5 days a week. Teacher pay remains the lowest on the national scale. Teachers are begging their communities to pitch in and help with supplies for their classrooms or otherwise they have to pay for it out of their own pocket. That's not even mentioning the fact that kids rely on the free school breakfast and lunch programs that are offered through the schools.[6] Particularly in rural areas that suffer from high levels of poverty. And that's not even mentioning that it's infeasible to put in place these kinds of programs in rural areas because due to location. I mean some of us live in places where it takes an hour to get to the nearest point of civilization. Sure we have our little small communities, but we usually have to travel a good 30-40 minutes to get to the nearest Walmart or Target. Now, imagine that kind of commute for a kindergartner every day after sitting for 8 hours in the classroom. A full-grown adult is exhausted after a day like that, but our lawmakers expect this of our children due to their unquenchable thirst to make the "bottom line" and line their pockets. And before anyone makes the argument well what about "Virtual learning"? Sure, that's great for some kids, but folks down here in the sticks, don't have access to the internet, especially broadband. Between having no providers and the cost of affordability is a major hurdle. I mean my"high speed" internet is 3 Mbps for $70 bucks a month and it's the only provider I can get that covers my area. And it's like that all over the congressional district I live in too. Parent Choice" agenda is hurting and leaving millions of children behind on the rest of the world out of the name of unadulterated capitalism. Another thing that most don't realize about these private schools is that in the state of Missouri, they are not required to hire licensed teachers, have no standard criteria for the curriculum to follow, and have absolutely no state or federal oversight on them. They don't even have to be registered for the state. That's why places like that horror show of a boarding school called Agape (that's still operating) or Lighthouse Christian Academy seem to have a never-ending cycle of abuse scandal after scandal pop up in the news. The kicker is now these kinds of schools can get funding from the state. That's right! Your tax dollars are now paying for the "parent's choice" to send their child to this kind of "School". And it's ironic considering it's the "Parent choice" crowd that is always screaming about folks getting "hand up" and calling them "handouts". And dear reader you know the ones I'm talking about too. The folks that are always complaining about "paying for someone else's way" use a social security net. I mean it's pretty clear that those folks are the first in line to get "Free money" as long as it lines their own pockets, and it's not the everyday folks just trying to survive the daily grind. What else makes them problematic is the fact is they do tend to be labeled as"Christian" education. And that folks open the door to complete indoctrination of children without giving them the skills of critical thinking to expand a very narrow point of view. And we all know is a really bad thing at the end of the day, because people need that to grow as individuals. That's not even mentioning how poorly these schools perform on an academic level.[7] We all so have the fact these schools kill the heart and soul of rural communities in general. Don't believe me on how proud folks are of their school districts--My advice goes to a small town for a football or even basketball game. Everyone that's anyone is at these sporting events. We hold fundraisers for various departments, Local stores donate some of their profits towards the schools. You cannot walk into any store around here and not find school colors and mascot merchandise. And yes we have decals on our cars with the mascots, because that's how proud we are of our schools. I'm also going to point out that schools are generally the largest employers in the area as well. So the "Parent Choice" agenda is taking jobs away and the spirit of the rural communities. And really -- school is the only thing we have going for us at the end of the day, and we do not take that for granted, unlike the folks that have more luxuries than we do like the crazies that decided to go terrorize schools all in the name of "Parents Rights and Choice". And that leads us right back into the politics of this agenda and the real reason beyond it. Now you have probably seen on the news the crazies around the U.S. going after the schools for "indoctrination", public health concerns, and outright attacking the libraries. These folks were nothing more than useful fools for the politicians making money off the very lies they sold to push the "Parent Choice" agenda. Granted, down here we didn't see any of that because folks generally thought that was insane and would shut down our crazies trying to start trouble with the schools. It also helped pushed the not-so-conservative point of view of MAGA into the mainstream. For us, in the Ozarks, it's not a nonpartisan issue for folks down here, and they make that known in overall. That's what our lawmakers don't understand. We will fight for our schools because we want our children to be educated and well-rounded individuals that can think for themselves. But our lawmakers seem to think that we're not entitled to that. Our lawmakers are mirroring Devos's thoughts about rural folks through their actions. [7] What I am saying dear reader, is that all this "Parent Choice" nonsense is nothing short of being a scam to make money and nothing more. It's not about better education, it's all about the "Benjamins" and millions of them at the end of the day. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for parents being able to choose the kind of education their children have, and having some input in their education. However, should we have to pay for it when we have a solid institution already in place where all children can achieve their best? Education is the key to any form of a "Liberty loving" --Free society. Let's try to keep it that!. As always take care, and be good to one another, Much love, and peace out, Jojo Citations: 1. https://www.timesnewspapers.com/westendword/opinion/rex-sinquefield-missouri-public-education/article_16037229-fb19-563f-ac4c-b5bc45264910.html
2. https://twitter.com/dncwarroom/status/1250151669830242306
3. https://missouriindependent.com/2022/01/10/lawmakers-eye-expansion-of-missouri-school-choice-program-but-can-it-get-the-votes/
4. https://missouriindependent.com/2022/06/29/missouri-charter-schools-will-receive-millions-in-state-funds-with-governors-signature/
5,https://www.kcur.org/education/2021-05-28/missouri-ranks-next-to-last-nationally-in-funding-k-12-schools-state-auditor-finds
6.https://local249.org/the-looming-danger-to-rural-schools/
7. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/02/02/devos-rural-america-school-reform-column/97362016/
https://www.americanprogressaction.org/article/the-maga-dream-of-ending-federal-education-funding-would-be-an-american-nightmare/
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