Denis O'Leary
Class warfare in education has been waged for years. It must end.
Cries from the extreme right have accused President Obama of starting a “class warfare” because corporations and the ultra-rich are being asked to pay their fair share in (dare I say it…) taxes.
Class warfare did not start with President Obama’s call for a fair tax system or a federal infrastructure job’s program. Class warfare has been waged in education for many years now. Holding down a student because they or their family are not affluent is class warfare.
Education is not only the means to advance in our society, but also of keeping a population down. No Child Left Behind is only now finding affluent school districts unable to meet the predicted higher goals in testing. Little attention was given when poorer districts were advancing, but still under the bar being raised ever higher. Now that the standard has left more affluent communities short, there are calls for change in the law.
College students are literally being told to pay the price of the Republican Party to not allow any tax to rise above President Bush’s or Governor Schwarzenegger’s “temporary” tax cuts. Jobs were not created as once proclaimed, the lowered tax levels still exist and students are told to pay higher tuitions for fewer classes and less academic materials.
The poverty of undocumented workers has been very good for many conservative farm owners and corporate CEO’s. Applauded for their political donations in conservative communities, unions and the teaching profession have become vilified from the US House Speaker’s office to local anonymous newspaper blogs.
The class warfare in education must stop. Education is not only the means to advance the student and their family, but California and the United States of America.
I applaud Governor Jerry Brown for signing the California Dream Act, allowing immigrant high school students to escape the generational class struggle brought on due to their parents’ actions.
The California Dream Act allows access to public financial aid, including Cal Grants, for undocumented students who came to the country before turning 16 and who have graduated from California high schools.
Much wealth has been made on the backs of undocumented workers. Poverty has too often been the reward. Educating the children of these workers will open greater competition for better jobs. California’s economy can only improve with a better-educated population.
Governor Jerry Brown has made great strides in this with the stroke of his pen. Perhaps President Barak Obama can also sign the Dream Act sooner, rather than later. There is much to be done to bring education to all. The benefits from education reform can be great.
— Denis O’Leary