talkpolitics | They Could Always Go Work in Factories

Teri Adams, Head of Independence Hall Tea Party and School Voucher Activist:

Our ultimate goal is to shut down public schools and have private schools only, eventually returning responsibility for payment to parents and private charities. It’s going to happen piecemeal and not overnight. It took us years to get into this mess and it’s going to take years to get out of it.

In other words, Adams would like education to be, along with medical care, available only to those who can pony up the cash for it.

The article I’ve linked to includes a few quotes from people speculating about what drives the American right’s hostility towards public education. The ban on teacher-led prayer is invoked, along with the mercenary desire to funnel the money now paid into public schools into private hands.

I suspect it’s much more simple than that. Without universal education, the far right wouldn’t have to contend with so many pesky arguments about the facts of history, math, science, etc.

Crossposted from Thoughtcrimes

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

And you honestly think that a parent would choose to let their kid work in a coal mine run by an egomaniac rather than any other job? Who's the insane person here again?

They did, once upon a time. And the point is not whether I think it would happen, but to get an answer to a hypothetical question.

Um, right. People used to live in caves and wear only the skins of animals they killed so I guess if we didn't have the government people would walk away from their homes and stop shopping at Wal Mart reverting back to a prehistoric life.

This is why your question is so stupid. Monte addressed this exact issue for you and you stuck your head in the sand and pretended it didn't exist.

People used to let their kids work in Mines because there WAS NO OTHER CHOICE. Society was not sufficiently rich to allow such a large pool of potential labor go unutilized.

However once society developed sufficient levels of capitalization (read wealth) that it was no longer necessary for kids to work kids stopped working. No of course it doesn't happen over night, it took time but once the level of wealth was sufficient that child labor is no longer profitable then child labor will always stop. If the level of wealth is not sufficient to abandon child labor then attempts to legislate it out of existence are doing nothing the legislating a famine into existence.

You have entirely missed the point. You are arguing that kids don't need to work in coal mines anymore. Apart from the fact that you are making a massive presumption about many families, the question is entirely hypothetical.

And wealth is not the reason kids stopped working. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labor_laws_in_the_United_States#Activism_against_child_labor)

They Could Always Go Work in Factories

Re: Public education is political indoctrination paid for by theft

Re: Public education is political indoctrination paid for by theft

Re: Public education is political indoctrination paid for by theft

Re: Public education is political indoctrination paid for by theft