We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone
All in all it's just another brick in the wall
Pink Floyd, “Another Brick in the Wall”, 1979
I was in the 8th grade when Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” was released in 1979. I remember thinking Floyd's view of school was excessively dark. The video of the kids on the conveyor belt was disturbing– Pink Floyd had it all wrong.
However, the US Department of Education was created in 1980 and today, the Department of Education employs 4,400 staff with a budget of $68 Billion. That money fills the pockets of Education Inc. (the alliance of education bureaucrats and teacher unions).
Our federal taxpayer dollars are doled out to state bureaucracies with mandates developed by members of Education Inc.. They are ideological in nature, espousing Critical Race Theory and Culturally Responsive Teaching. “Adhere to our mandates or you don’t get the money.” That is federal overreach. That is our taxpayer money. The money doled out to states by the federal bureaucracy is in addition to our state and local taxes which support the lower tiers of Education Inc.
Are we getting our money’s worth at all? I’ve been trying to answer that question since I embarked on writing Enduring Education parts 1, 2 & 3. Decidedly, we are not. Education in America is producing less impressive results every year. As I explained in Part 2 of the Enduring Education series, the United States ranked 13 in Reading and 36 in Math among its international counterparts. Recall Dr. Cleon Skousen’s item 17 of 45 items communists have done to destroy America from within from Part 3 of the series: soften the curriculum. This is the result.
Education Inc. is fine with this result. They’ll just keep asking for more money “to improve equitable outcomes for the children.” They'll commission more studies like the $454,000 685 page tome out of Montgomery County Public Schools called an “Anti-racist system audit”. Hogwash! Balderdash! More Gobbledygook! It will make your head explode.
They’ll keep building more school board complexes with your taxpayer money. They’ll keep demanding higher pay and broader benefits. They wont teach your child anything of value, though.
Maryland spends $15K per student annually. At $15K per year, you can send your kids to a reasonable private school. We do. But what about the families that cannot afford private schools? Why not allow Maryland families to allocate their $15K per child as they see fit? Now that’s equity!
There is also home schooling, but not everyone is cut out for that– I certainly am not! Besides, state bureaucrats still demand to be in your academic business when home schooling. Education Inc. has successfully stigmatized home school and even charter school families as backward, extreme, and unenlightened.
I am the first college graduate in my family. I have an undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech and a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins. Impressive for a second generation American whose father joined the Marine Corps at age 17 without a high school diploma.
My mother framed my college diploma. My dad put a yellow sticky note on it that simple read: $50K. That was the cost of my college education back in the 80s. Dad was really saying there is an incalculable value in education. My parents raised me to believe that education is an invaluable asset that goes everywhere you go, and no one can take it away from you. Yet these state bureaucrats are trying to transform the nature of education in America.
When my husband and I talked about pubic versus private schools, my husband was of the philosophy that public schools were good enough for us. I warned him that Maryland schools in the 2000s were not the same as in the 1980s. We agreed to give public schools three strikes before enrolling our kids into private school. Three strikes were blown by our first daughter’s 3rd grade year.
We had simply wanted our children to be educated in the basics of reading, writing, arithmetic, science, and history. A real education based on real teaching, but public education could not provide that. We would be the ones to mold our kids into responsible citizens of the greatest nation on Earth.
Too many American children are denied the education they deserve because of “woke” leftist policies promoted by Education Inc.. The government propagandizes and indoctrinates our kids in the name of "equity" and "funding".
Do not let Education Inc. take away the invaluable asset a real education offers our kids. Do not let Education Inc. impose their radical, racist and anti-American thought-control upon your kids. 
Education Inc. is an industry. It churns out students woefully under-educated and anti-American. Their unions are political campaign arms of the progressive socialist left. Education Inc. bureaucrats think it is their job to transform your children into their social justice warriors. Reading, writing and arithmetic be damned. They think you- their parents -are standing in the way of their critical non-education “woke” mission.
I now proclaim, as did Pink Floyd in 1979:
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone.
Patriot Parents & Grandparents must hold Education Inc. accountable. Do not be afraid to stand up to radical teachers and school administrators. Stand against their absurd and dangerous curricula. Remember: Education Inc. works for you! If not for your hard-earned tax dollars, Education Inc. would be unable to fund their social experiments (aka your kids).
Citizens concerned for their children’s future and their education under federal, state & local governments that are increasingly bloated, corrupt, reckless and invasive, have a constitutional option.
There are countless ways to be actively engaged as Patriot Parents. Get involved in your child’s education by becoming active participants in parent organizations or your local school boards. (Maryland is looking for a new state superintendent of schools.) Find out more about the #Red4Ed movement and battle against it in your district.
We must also call a Convention of States to bring accountability and power back to the states and the people, where it belongs. Be a 21st Century Patriot Parent. Join us and Sign the Petition.
