First They Came ...

   Before voting in the August 28 republican run-off election for State Superintendent of Schools - public school advocates and conservatives should read the following books: RACE to the BOTTOM (CORPORATE SCHOOL REFORM AND THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION) by Michael V. McGill, 2015; MYTHS & LIES THAT THREATEN AMERICA'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS (The REAL CRISIS in EDUCATION) by Berliner, Glass, and Associates, 2014; THE FIGHT FOR AMERICA'S SCHOOLS by Barbara Ferman, et al, 2017; LEADING WITH INTEGRITY (Reflections on Legal, Moral, and Ethical Issues in School Administration) by Clarence G. Oliver, Jr., Ed.D., 2015; REIGN OF ERROR (The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools) by Diane Ravitch, 2013; and The Great School Wars by Diane Ravitch, 2000.
   I am particularly fond of two - Leading With Integrity and Reign of Error (I have author signed copies of both) and have read them again and again, as I have difficulty retaining material after one reading. Diane Silvers Ravitch is a historian of education, an education policy analyst, and a research professor at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development (WIKIPEDIA). She was also a U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education under both George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, has written many books concerning our public schools and now has her own blog, Diane Ravitch's Blog.
   My own beliefs concerning our Oklahoma public schools mirrors Dr. Ravitch. She and many public school advocates believe that the privatization and corporatization movements in public education will eventually be the death of our local public schools, just as the corporatization movement in American retail meant the death of many local and small businesses. Small businesses can't compete with corporate giants because of unfair advantages (corporate welfare), just as local public schools can't compete with corporate education giants for the same reason - corporate welfare.
   I've analogized and equated corporate education welfare as the destructive agent for our public schools to corporate farming welfare as the destructive agent which caused the American Dust Bowl of the late 1920's and 1930's. For those who have already read the above list by now (LOL), Timothy Egan wrote an American history book - The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl in which he attributes the Dust Bowl tragedy to reckless "corporate" agricultural misuse of the land. The "misuse" of Oklahoma's top soil wasn't by local farmers though, as corporate farms (whose CEO's were called "suitcase farmers" by local residents) swooped in from the east to ultimately destroy our local farmers and ranchers. Those suitcase farmers were armed with "generous federal tax incentives", now known as corporate welfare, in order to destroy many local farmers (some literally). My own grandfather, Virgil Beckham (1888-1933), a local farmer from Clinton, died as a result of the corporate Dust Bowl. It seems Virgil had just purchased a mule at a farm sale north of Clinton and was on his way home, walking and leading the mule - when a dust storm swept in from the northwest. The storm "spooked" the mule causing it to run-away, and Virgil (unable to get his hand untied from the lead rope) was dragged to death. This is only one reason I have a particular aversion to corporate interests.

   My personal philosophy toward public schools can be analogized to the poem First They Came... by Martin Niemoller, a German Lutheran pastor who spent 7 years in a Nazi concentration camp. It is about the cowardice of German intellectuals following the Nazis' rise to power and subsequent purging of their chosen targets:
       First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out-
       Because I was not a Socialist.
       Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out-
       Because I was not a trade unionist.
       Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-
       Because I was not a Jew.
       Then they came for me- and there was no one left to speak for me.
   Niemoller seemed to regret "not speaking out" when the Nazis came for everyone around him. He only felt relief when the Nazis first overlooked him. He did not realize at the time that they would soon come for him also, and regretted not speaking out against them, as it would have been the "right" thing to do. When Niemoller recited his lamentation, he often changed the groups depending on his audience, supplanting socialists with industrialists - and so on. For me, this poem is very poignant as I try to remember it when advocating for specific causes. My friend, Superintendent Rick Garrison of Elk City and President of the Oklahoma Association of School Administrators, recited the poem for public schools:
       First they came for the small schools, and I did not speak out-
       Because I was not part of a small school.
       Then they came for the rural schools, and I did not speak out-
       Because I was not part of a rural school.
       Then they came for the teachers, and I did not speak out-
       Because I was not a teacher.
       Then they came for me- and there was no one left to speak for me.
   What Garrison implores all public school advocates to realize is that sooner or later, the corporate reform of our public schools will negatively affect all public schools, teachers, students, and administrators - so the time for action is now. Conservatives, liberals, and all public school advocates must vote these corporate puppets out. Facts concerning identification of national, state, and local corporate reformers, corporate puppets, and corporate office holders can be analyzed in this column/post.