I attended part of today's hearing on vouchers at the Texas State Capitol and thought about Nancy MacLean's work as I listened to bogus research that somehow proves that vouchers work, particularly when the testimony I was there to give, actually is all based on peer-reviewed research, markedly diverging from claims made by Sen. Creighton from the dais. Read: Will School Vouchers Benefit Low-Income Families? Assessing the Evidence," by Jabbar, H., Holme, J., Lemke, M., LeClair, Sanchez, J., Torres, E.M. & Pernetti, M. (March, 2023).
You can listen to the hearing right now—Tues, Oct. 10—at this link.
These legislators don't come to us across the way to get these facts from us as clearly, they seek to put forward their own alternative set of "facts," not unlike how so much of the Republican Party operates today. In fact, our facts that we provide in the academy are such a nuisance to them that they've resorted to their own playbook of attacking the messenger and even the institution of higher education. For illumination on all of the above, do listen to this excellent keynote by Dr. Nancy MacLean whose work exposes the libertarian cause led by Koch industries' CEO Charles Koch and his donor network.
The agenda for Koch-style libertarians is first and foremost to provide for the national defense, ensuring the rule of law—particularly the protecting of private property—and maintaining social order that is otherwise captured in the phrase, "armies, courts, and police." This is an extremist vision for our country where public education, environmental protections, public health, social security, medicare, public lands, and agencies exist no longer and are on a hit list in the current historical moment.
Democracy is the only way to push back against this.
Do listen to her eye-opening talk posted below and do read her award-winning book, Democracy in Chains, winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Finalist for the National Book Award, and The Nation‘s “Most Valuable Book.”
-Angela Valenzuela
"Why Is the Right “Laying Siege” to Education? The History that Solves the Mystery”
Keynote Address by Dr. Nancy MacLean—William H. Chafe Distinguished Professor
The SCOTUS got the decision wrong in Zelman v Sammons. The use of public funds directed through parents for the purpose of funding religious institutions is certainly a violation for the First Amendment's Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Beyond that, the Texas Constitution is much more adamate that public funds never be directed to a religious institution such as a religious based private school. "No money shall be appropriated, or drawn from the Treasury for the benefit of any sect, or religious society, theological or religious seminary; nor shall property belonging to the State be appropriated for any such purposes." https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/SDocs/THETEXASCONSTITUTION.pdf
ReplyDeleteThe function of this diversion of public school funds serves no purpose but to weaken public schools for them to be privatized. It is a boondoggle and the worst politics.