How to talk about our community schools
Last month in our blog “Project 2025: The Far-Right’s Attack on Educational Opportunity for ALL” we gave our rundown of what this Orwellian plan would mean to our cherished public schools, wellsprings of democracy. We invite you to exercise critical thinking on all we have shared. We encourage you to look up the document for yourself and read the relevant parts.
This month, we make the case in support of public education:
Sometimes we find ourselves in conversation with neighbors, friends, or relatives who question why we support local, publicly supported schools. While we’re not experts in communications, here are some approaches we’ve found to provoke thought rather than instant opposition.
Voice your support for your neighborhood school. Tell a story about a good experience your child or someone you know has had there. Stories have power. People remember them. Talk about the kindness or expertise of a teacher, an excellent assembly, a caring counselor or nurse, a librarian who found the just-right book.
Focus on the big picture. Our schools are wellsprings of democracy. They teach our kids to be responsible citizens who can vote wisely. They prepare our kids to meet the world and fulfill their highest potential. They connect the families in our community, forging a bond between ALL the kids and families, uniting us behind our hope for our children’s future.
Debunk the false claims of “school choice” or “vouchers” and all the other names for insidious ways to shutter our community schools and replace them with for-profit businesses that can reject any child who will cost them extra to educate. They can discriminate against special needs kids, they can teach anything they like without any oversight, they can skim money off the top… why would we want to throw our taxpayer dollars at someone else’s profit motive? At the expense of our children?
Use the example of other public goods. Our tax money pays for our local parks, our police and firefighters, our roads, our local libraries. How could it be acceptable that someone says, “Hey, I want a bespoke park/police force/fire company/road/library, tailored just to my needs, so gimme my tax money and let me make my own park/police force/fire company/road/library.” That’s not how any of this works. It’s expensive, wasteful, divisive, and ineffective. We’re stronger together.
Go back to the story and the vision. Our schools form the foundation of our democracy. They educate ALL the kids. They bring our families together in shared vision for our children’s future. We love them, support them, and defend them against profiteers and political ideologues. Just as we would protect our children against imminent threat, we protect our children’s schools.
Sharing your support of public education is a powerful way to remind people what’s at stake should Project 2025 ever see daylight.
The Americans who are doing the most to shine a light on what Project 2025 proposes have discovered that when they tell folks what’s in it, the people cannot believe it. The dark nightmare of policy in this plan so far exceeds what people can wrap their heads around that those who understand it have to water it down, lighten it up, soft-pedal its contents before anyone will engage with them about it. “Oh, come on, that can’t be in there,” people say. Yet it is.
Please hear this from us: we all need to face what Project 2025 has in store for us should those who wrote it gain the power to realize it. We’re at a moment in history when we have to face facts. There is no wisdom in refusing to believe that people plan what they say they’re planning.
Maya Angelou taught us: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
If she were still here, she would laugh Project 2025 out of town. This is a “oh hell no” moment in our civic lives. It’s crucial that we rise up to meet it.
P.S. Thank you, Mother Maya. We love you and miss you, but we have not forgotten the lessons you offered us.