The Dangerous Rhetoric of School Choice

I get most of my hate comments not when I'm speaking on abortion, or guns...it's school choice

I write and Tweet often about the right’s push to privatize public schools. The absolute blowback I receive on this topic is unprecedented, even for me. 

A little background on who I am. I was an English teacher for 16 years and am a proud product of public schools. All five of our children have attended rural public schools in Missouri. I regularly speak up for public schools, but doing so in this climate can result in rhetoric that can be intimidating, if not threatening. 

I ran for office in 2022 in very rural Missouri. (Spoiler: I didn’t win.) While running for office opens you up to criticism,  degrading comments are neither criticism nor  pushback. They are, simply put, nastiness, or even threats. I have received everything from threats to dox me–they did do this–to threats to harm me or call the Missouri Department of Social Services.  Most of these threats originated from anonymous accounts when my writing or Tweets made somebody mad and set off a firestorm, which pro-voucher guru (and Betsy DeVos-funded) Corey DeAngelis happily amplified.

My friend who ran for office in rural southern Missouri experienced worse. A lawyer and an Army wife with a husband who was deployed, she spoke often on school funding and, toward the end of her unsuccessful campaign, she and her children were doxed and threatened. One emailer told her they would sexually abuse her and her three year old child. Remember, this threat came from someone upset about school funding!

Why does the topic of school funding open the door to hateful rhetoric?

For decades, actors on the right have been attempting to contract with private, for-profit entities to profit from our children. These same folks regularly call public schools “government schools” while trying to get their hands on public funds for private religious schools.

The school culture wars have given these school choice groups an opening, weaponizing “CRT” “Social and Emotional Learning” and “DEI” as the latest in a long line of straw man arguments. The result is that public school board meetings end up getting hijacked, and policy discussions descend into chaotic screaming matches. 

The media bubble on the right constantly pushes out false or misleading narratives about “failing” schools, teachers, and unions to rile up the conservative base, even in places where unions barely exist. And the rhetoric has only grown more extreme, with teachers now being labeled “groomers” or even worse, “pedophiles.” This rhetoric is meant to incite disgust toward public educators and those backing public schools.

This is not an accident.

Why attack the public system of schools that are a pillar of our democracy?

It is common to hear “abolish public schools” in these circles and the temperature is getting hotter every day. This is music to the ears of those who stand to make money from the privatization of our public school–those who financially benefit from the commodification of public schools and the politicians who could do the bidding of the donor class pushing for school privatization. 

The extreme rhetoric is used to justify the defunding of our public schools. The latest voucher scheme in Missouri,  education savings account scholarships essentially let taxpayers pay taxes directly to a private school of their choosing for a dollar-for-dollar tax match. This siphons even more money away from public schools into private or religious schools that are not accountable to state standards, and do not have to accept disabled children or their IEPs. They choose their own students while the schools that educate  all children are steadily defunded.

Ironically, “school choice” is non-existent in rural red parts of Missouri, like the northwest part of the state where I live.

The closest charter school is 1.5 hours one way, and the nearest private, religious high school is 50 minutes each way.  That means that when Missouri lawmakers defund public schools and enact school voucher schemes, they are not creating choice for the children in those rural communities. They are taking away field trips, eliminating text book budgets, leaving playgrounds to rot, allowing facilities to crumble, and leaving a new generation of Missouri educators wondering if staying in their home state makes sense financially. 

Aggressive school choice activists often use hateful rhetoric against public school advocates to silence us. The most outspoken donors and politicians push for school choice solely for profit. The privatization movement has little to do with children and everything to do with taking money away from public use for private gain. 

Some would sacrifice our most vulnerable--our children--for one reason and one reason alone: greed.

~Jess