As America’s children start getting back to school this month, our country needs a grown-up conversation about public education’s future. The odds of having one this fall are slim.
It’s more likely that the midterm election campaign will intensify today’s noxious trend toward politicizing public schools. That’s reprehensible, because our children, who suffered severe learning losses and emotional stress during the pandemic, deserve better than to be treated as hostages in the nation’s vitriolic culture wars.
Republicans, who seem to be at war with all of America’s public institutions, are the worst offenders. But Democrats aren’t blameless, and even as they fend off the right’s demagogic attacks on public schools, they need to come to grips with the valid reasons why parental frustration is boiling over.
