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America’s Public Schools Have Become Socialist Indoctrination Factories
Townhall.com ^ | January 28, 2018 | Justin Haskins

Posted on 01/28/2019 1:46:57 PM PST by Kaslin

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, wants to insert government into every aspect of your life, from education and health care to the kind of car you drive—and she’s not alone. Millions of other Millennials agree that the world would be a better place if government were empowered to dramatically increase taxes and regulations and create massive new federal programs that could take care of Americans from the womb to the tomb. In fact, a 2018 Gallup poll found more than half of Americans aged 18 to 29 now view socialism positively. Only 45 percent said they have a positive view of capitalism.

The real question isn’t whether these socialist tendencies exist, but rather why they exist. How is it that the same generation that has benefited more from capitalism than any other in human history is also the generation most willing to destroy it?

One of the most commonly expressed answers to these questions is that America’s higher education system has turned into a bastion for leftist thought. A 2018 study of more than 8,600 tenure-track professors by Brooklyn College professor Mitchell Langbert found registered Democrats outnumber Republicans at 51 of America’s leading liberal arts colleges by a ratio of 10.4 to one.

As important as bias on college campuses is, it’s only one piece of the puzzle. Much of the problem goes back much further, to K–12 schools, where only 27 percent of teachers identify as Republicans, according to a national survey by the Education Week Research Center. Not only are K–12 teachers more likely to vote for Democrats and favor left-wing causes, socialist ideas permeate nearly every aspect of government-run schools. 

From their earliest days, young students are taught by modern state curriculum standards to be cogs in the societal wheel rather than independent thinkers. The educational focus is often placed on performing well on standardized tests and memorizing facts, not learning how to make difficult moral choices or cogent arguments with classmates. Young children are constantly told “sharing is caring,” and students routinely “earn” participation trophies for merely showing up.  

Influential education “experts” like Alfie Kohn denounce the use of rewards in education, even calling them “destructive.” In many schools, students don’t earn letter grades anymore. We wouldn’t want the poor-performers to feel badly!

Most children no longer extensively read the literary classics, which include a wealth of resources, and many high schoolers spend little time enrolled in civics or history courses compared to classes that focus on mathematics, science, or technology. And when they are in history classrooms, they are often bombarded with left-wing historical revisionism that turns American heroes like George Washington into racist moral monsters.

And these examples are just the subtle forms for educational socialism. In many public schools, teachers are outright hostile to conservative ideas and openly embrace radical left-wing positions like single-payer health care.

Given the state of the current educational system, it’s not surprising that many young people identify with the collectivist principles of the far left and not with the rugged individualism that has been the foundation of American life for centuries. Our children aren’t being taught the same principles the American Founders were taught when they were kids; children today don’t even read the same books the Founders read. Is it any wonder then that they don’t think the same way John Adams and Thomas Jefferson did?

In recent decades, millions of American families have bravely moved their children out of the government school system, often at great cost, to escape the increasingly radical nature of the public education system. More than 1.7 million kids are now homeschooled, significantly more than in the 1980s. These are undeniably positive developments, but the overwhelming majority of students are still trapped in left-wing schools, and unless parents have the financial means to move them out, they’re going to stay there.

All this isn’t to say that hope is lost, however. America has drifted to the left before—most notably in the progressive era of the early twentieth century—and then subsequently rediscovered its identity. But if we’re going to save Millennials from socialism, conservatives can’t stay sitting on the sidelines, hoping their children and millions of others suddenly realize socialism is a flawed idea.

One vitally important public policy solution is the passage of education savings accounts, which allow parents to use much of the taxpayer money that would have been spent on their child in a local government school on tuition and fees at another school, public or private. Parents could even use ESAs to homeschool their children.

ESAs are a good first step toward fighting back against socialism in public education, but it’s not enough to provide students with opportunities to change schools. Wealthy conservatives who believe in the power of free markets and individual liberty need to start building new K–12 schools and colleges as well, so that parents have options that extend beyond their local government-run school. 

To rescue America from socialism, conservatives also need to devote significant resources—especially time and money—toward teaching Millennials about the dangers of socialism and the value of free markets. This can be achieved by launching new publications, creating videos and podcasts, and spending more time on college campuses—all of which we’re trying to accomplish at StoppingSocialism.com. We need a massive multi-faceted, multi-organization campaign against socialism, and everyone can play a part, especially student groups like Students for Liberty, Turning Point USA, and Young Americans for Liberty.

We can’t afford to continue closing our eyes to this growing problem and wishing for the best. We must act now. Time is running out.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: academia; anotheraocthread; education; oasiocortez; ocasiocortez; rentfree; rentfreeonfr; socialism
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1 posted on 01/28/2019 1:46:57 PM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

The Communist Takeover Of America - 45 Declared Goals

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.


2 posted on 01/28/2019 1:50:12 PM PST by Red Badger (We are headed for a Civil War. It won't be nice like the last one....................)
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To: Kaslin

AOC, with little pointy head, is all about big gov and its intrusion into every aspect of our lives because she is a socialist programmed and indoctrinate butter face.

A high percentage of Millennials are just like her. The good news is gen Z is shaping up to be better than gen Y.


3 posted on 01/28/2019 1:52:36 PM PST by Boomer ( Leftism is toxic poison to a free society.)
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To: Kaslin

They have this insane idea that the country is “unfair” (racist-sexist-bigoted-homophobic), coupled with the even more insane idea that it’s possible to “make life fair”.

Coupled with the even MORE insane idea that government is competent to do that.


4 posted on 01/28/2019 1:54:35 PM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Red Badger

They have done all those things with barely a squeak from the republicans since McCarthy spoke up about the communist infiltration’s.


5 posted on 01/28/2019 1:54:39 PM PST by Boomer ( Leftism is toxic poison to a free society.)
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To: Kaslin

Socialism has been in the education plan since John Dewey masterminded it to turn American school children into little socialists.


6 posted on 01/28/2019 1:55:46 PM PST by Slyfox (Not my circus, not my monkeys)
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To: Kaslin

Progs have already demonstrated that they do not mind cities and towns ignoring immigration laws.

So we have the complete (and necessary) right to give them the middle finger on any number of their laws. Naturally, corrupt cities (all of the big ones) will still do their normal slimy things. But, small ones can ignore. If the libs try taxing/fines, ignore them. Dare them to come out and collect them. After all, the power lines to all of those cities run through the country.

Try it, progs.

Let’s just get this war over and done with.


7 posted on 01/28/2019 1:55:46 PM PST by Da Coyote
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To: Kaslin
"America’s Public Schools Have Become Socialist Indoctrination Factories"

Where has Mr. Haskins been for the last 50 years?

8 posted on 01/28/2019 1:55:47 PM PST by ImpBill (Conservative little "l" libertarian)
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To: Kaslin
It doesn't help that the GOPe has turned "free market" into a rationalization for gutting the American middle class with low-paid foreign labor, both legal and illegal, in order to further fatten the wallets of the GOPe's corporate globalist johns.
9 posted on 01/28/2019 1:58:00 PM PST by NobleFree ("law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual")
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To: Kaslin

Have some face with that MOUTH, Alex


10 posted on 01/28/2019 1:58:18 PM PST by A_Former_Democrat ("Mods/Indies/Dems/Non-voters" JOBS or MOBS? Are CRAZY DIMS REALLY who you want BACK in POWER?)
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To: Kaslin

And whats more, any openly conservative teacher is forced out, The Union refuses to protect you, and the administration puts a target on your back, If they can’t get rid of you, they will send in a professioal to try and get you to sexually harass her, the same as has happened to many innocent commentators of places like Fox News.

No, there has been a cultural war ongoing now for 20 years or more. And now those who are not joining in with liberal fascism, and living a life bounded by political correctness
instead of liberty, cannot be teachers but in a very few places like Hillsdale College.

I cannot see how we will not have a civil war, but then I am looking out from a bottom of a barrel. Maybe if I was on a mountain I would see things differently, but I don’t think so.


11 posted on 01/28/2019 2:05:55 PM PST by Candor7 ((Obama Fascism)http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html)
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To: Kaslin
"America’s Public Schools Have Become Socialist Indoctrination Factories"

NO? Really?...Justin Haskins is late to the party! Lets don't be late to the Islam party.......

12 posted on 01/28/2019 2:05:57 PM PST by yoe (This "war" between USA parties is about the Constitution. Capitolism and Marxism.)
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To: Red Badger

not just public schools....how about the service academies. Look at the superintended of the USAF academy and then look at the recent photos of the middies at the USNA with the black power salute and the recent grad that was a “Che Supporter” and thought that communists were awesome.

It’s time to purge the whole system of these clowns and fire them but nobody has the balls to do it and they know it.


13 posted on 01/28/2019 2:06:06 PM PST by Dick Vomer (2 Timothy 4:7 deo duce ferro comitante)
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To: A_Former_Democrat

???


14 posted on 01/28/2019 2:22:00 PM PST by ConjunctionJunction
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To: ConjunctionJunction

Like she has more mouth than face

Just a standard insult, like have some face with your make up


15 posted on 01/28/2019 2:26:21 PM PST by A_Former_Democrat ("Mods/Indies/Dems/Non-voters" JOBS or MOBS? Are CRAZY DIMS REALLY who you want BACK in POWER?)
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To: Kaslin

Free Markets (aka Capitalism)? Socialism?

Were they asked ‘bout the Constitution? A1S8? Any # of Amendments? Rights vs. Democracy (aka mob rule)?

Maybe they should have asked why they don’t MOVE to their Socialism ‘utopia’ of choice (*FREE* education, h’care, etc.)??


16 posted on 01/28/2019 2:26:51 PM PST by i_robot73 (One could not count the number of *solutions*, if only govt followed\enforced the Constitution.)
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To: Kaslin
Stupidest title for an article I've ever seen... Has this moron been hiding in his bomb shelter for the past 54 years?

A correct title would be: "America’s Public Schools Became Socialist Indoctrination Factories 54-years ago"

17 posted on 01/28/2019 2:30:08 PM PST by SuperLuminal (Where is Sam Adams now that we desperately need him)
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To: Red Badger; Kaslin

>The Communist Takeover Of America - 45 Declared Goals

Been ‘in the know’ for a good century or so. And, what exactly have the (R)N(C) done re: ANY of the 45 goals? Hell, under GWB there was the latest iteration of govt school control, NCLB, 4th-A killer NSA\TSA, the *LARGEST* O’Care precursor to its date, MediXYZ PartD...


18 posted on 01/28/2019 2:38:22 PM PST by i_robot73 (One could not count the number of *solutions*, if only govt followed\enforced the Constitution.)
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To: Kaslin

It seems to me this is the downfall of all great Republics. The youth get softer and softer and eventually decide it is easier to do nothing and have the government take care of you. By the time they realize government control sucks it is too late.


19 posted on 01/28/2019 2:48:05 PM PST by antidemoncrat
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To: Slyfox

Yes. And always include The Frankfurt School & Columbia U, too. They put it on steroids in the late 1940’s.


20 posted on 01/28/2019 3:14:16 PM PST by polymuser (It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged today. - Chesterton)
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