Education Brownshirts

The folks at Lew Rockwell refer to the public school system as the most pure example of socialism we have in this country. We tend to view such statement as hyperbole (but maybe not, since they restrict it to examples in our country), but there's truth there: public schools are expensive and inefficient and mandatory. E x I x M = socialism (where "=" means "looks like").

In any event, at a time when home schools and other private initiatives are getting children out of the troughs, other segments are trying to expand the K-12 reach: into the preschools. Link. Excerpts:

The value of universal preschool is one of those unquestioned nostrums sweeping the country. The way the question is framed for the public isn't whether we should love universal preschool, it's solely whether we'll pay for it. Now Rob Reiner – actor, director, gadfly – is planning an initiative for the June 2006 ballot. He wants to raise $2.3 billion a year by taxing the well-off and establishing a free, voluntary half-day preschool system for all 4-year-olds in California. . .

. . . Reiner's preschool utopia would force the state to set "content standards." and take oversight on such matters as whether to read "Pet the Bunny" or "Goodnight Moon" away from parents and preschools and hand it to education officials. . .

. . . Reiner's classes would have 20 children, each taught by a teacher and an aide, where now there might be three students, or 12, or in the current state-subsidized system 24 children taught by a teacher and two aides. Even some of the state's top preschool advocates say it would be hard for home-based family child-care providers to become part of the Reinerian dictate, unless they find a way to join forces to create classrooms of close to 20.

Scary stuff.