Instapundit's Fear of the Reality of Tennessee Public Education

...there are days when I think that the strident-sounding criticism of "government schools" by Neal Boortz, et al., just might have something to it.

-Glen Reynolds

Allow me to lay the groundwork for some "strident-sounding criticism" of my own.

1. Knox County Schools is one of the educational entities the Tennessee Department of Education and the State Board of Education oversees and regulates.
2. There is a school board and it must follow the laws imposed by Title 49, Chapter 2, part 2 of the Tennessee Code regarding it's elections, powers, duties, and so forth.
3. Knox County imposes a property tax to pay for the local education institutions.
4. I'll let this speak for itself:

   There are 95 counties in Tennessee and all but one spends less of their local taxes on education than Knox County. Simply stated it is time we do more, because we can't afford not to do more!

   Here are some of the ways we are working to make Great Schools:

   • This year, Knox County government has taken over the schools telecommunications and payroll functions. We're eliminating bureaucratic duplications, with savings going directly to our school system. This consolidation of services means an additional $1.6 million dollars in school funding.

   
   
5. According to the FY 2004/05 Proposed Operating Budget of the City of Knoxville (PDF page 28):

   The City imposes, as the result of local referenda, a 2.25% local option sales tax on all sales within the city limits. Approximately 72% of the proceeds from the tax go to the Knox County School District, with the balance flowing to the City’s General Fund.

So.

The schools Professor Reynolds is referring to are funded by arms of the government and employ people who are compensated by state and local governments. These people wield state and local law. The schools are not so much regulated by state and local law as they are run primarily according to state and local law. This, of course, ignores the significant increase in involvement from the federal level.

These are and have been, in every sense of the term, "government schools," Professor Reynolds. Just because you dislike the implications of someone's rhetoric doesn't mean what they say is incorrect or worthy of scare quotes. Especially when one writes just fucking before those scare quotes: "My local school system, which is ... threatening parents with jail time..."

I mean, what does it TAKE to wake these people up? A cop with a gun to their heads to cough up tax money to pay for politically-motivated educational curriculum so state-pensioned teachers can work in regulated labor conditions in building-code-coerced facilities in order to stamp out happy little law-abiding citizens that don't know a fucking thing? The Instapundit is one tax non-compliant step away from completing that scenario and he acts with aggressive ignorance towards the rightfully angry words that describe the whole horrid mess.

Gawddamn it!

Posted by Drizzten at April 18, 2005 01:53 PM