The utter dedication of the country’s teachers’ unions to a radical transformation of the U.S. has long been evident, but if you need a refresher, consider the resolution recently adopted in Colorado, declaring that capitalism “exploits” people and harms education. Not a single one of the resolution’s supporters knows Thing One about capitalism, but that doesn’t matter in the least.
Pushing back against this lunacy is Hans Bader in this Liberty Unyielding article.
Bader writes, “The teachers union claim that capitalism harms schools is contradicted by the fact that capitalist countries tend to be better at teaching students useful skills than Marxist countries. Communist regimes may be able to teach basic literacy, but they are very bad at teaching students to think creatively or do complex or mentally demanding tasks. Eastern European countries have lower IQs than Western European countries, directly proportional to the stultifying nature of their school systems. Albania, which suffered under the worst communist regime in Europe (which outlawed religion and killed most of its clergy), has the lowest average IQ in Europe, while Romania, which had the second most oppressive regime in Europe, has the second-lowest average IQ in Europe.”
Inconvenient facts. We don’t need no stinkin’ facts!
Then there is the little matter of peace and prosperity. Capitalism is conducive to both, which is good for children and other living things, whereas collectivism leads to bloody conflicts and stifles innovation.
Bader also observes, “The resolution’s hostility to capitalism is in accord with critical race theory (CRT), which is popular in education schools. The most-cited author in education schools is Gloria Ladson-Billings, a critical race theorist who ‘introduced critical race theory into the academic field of education in 1995.’ She is the author of ‘Critical Race Theory in Education: A Scholar’s Journey,’ and ‘Toward a Critical Race Theory of Education.’ She has been cited in articles by education scholars more than 80,000 times.”
Few if any of those “education scholars” is a true, objective intellectual, and the citations are found in what professor Stan Ridgley calls “cargo cult journals” in his book Brutal Minds.
But there could be a silver lining in this silly resolution. It might cause Colorado parents to walk away from the state’s public schools at an accelerating rate. It ought to.