Congressional hopeful David Harmer wants public schools to die

According to Nick Baumann of Mother Jones, Calif. Congressional candidate Harmer might be doing the smart thing by hiding his views about the public school system. Activities and written documents related to Harmer explain his position as one very much against the existence of public schools. He considers them bastions of “socialism in education”. Once the slate is clean, The United States can go back to “the way things worked via the first century of American nationhood,” Harmer believes.

Race issues do not include getting rid of public schools

Meg Whitman, as the California GOP gubernatorial candidate, doesn’t agree with the view David Harmer has on education. On record, Whitman said she wanted schools to do better. She vowed to do this. Yet Harmer’s views on public schools are crystal clear, thanks to a 2000 San Francisco Chronicle op-ed entitled “Abolish the Public Schools.”. In essence, Harmer advocates eliminating the Department of Education and any government funding of schools, then going back to allowing parents, trade guilds, associations, fraternities, churches and charities to fund education.

There is still a trouble though. This is what Baumann explains. John Rury is a historian at the University of Kansas. He says that most individuals think the past “education for all” outlook The United States had had been much better than it really was. It hasn’t been long since high school had been something individuals could not attend. It was only for the wealthy. Being disabled meant you were not going to get an education. Women and minorities couldn’t go either. A mere four or five months out of the year students got “very basic literacy and computational skills” if they even made it past primary education. America had for making education more essential to compete with the world. This meant taxpayer-supported schools were th! e only option. Rury argues that this had been inevitable, as the need for more teachers and a longer school year drove up costs.

Suppressing severe tea party opinions

Baumann writes that when David Harmer worked for the conservative Heritage Foundation and published a book called “School Choice: Why You Need It — How You Get It,” the GOP candidate frequently spoke of the ills of “socialism in education.”. This issue could be one Harmer would talk about as he is intending to get elected to Congress. The truth is, his campaign website does not even discuss the issue on there anywhere.

Citations

Mother Jones

motherjones.com/politics/2010/10/david-harmer-abolish-public-schools

SF Gate

sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2000/08/27/SC85034.DTL