For decades I’ve heard the same nonsense: “I don’t send my kids to public school, why should I have to pay for public school?”
Republicans consider public education as an entitlement program—something we can do away with entirely so we have a steady source of underpaid labor.
Education is the primary engine that drives class mobility in this country. It’s no wonder that Republicans are opposed to making it more widely available, and instead use it as an opportunity to provide absolute minimum resources at public expense.
Both of my parents were schoolteachers. I’ve been a schoolteacher in Tennessee–it is the one of the hardest jobs you can imagine, even before you factor in attacks from politicians and people who don’t even have children in school.
Public education needs to be protected, expanded, and fully funded. Educators need to make wages that encourage them to enter the profession, not to make more money doing anything else. And public officials who attack teachers need to find another line of work.