Why is the US—among the first countries to guarantee free, universal public education—now becoming the first to end it? Why was money available at one stage of our nation’s history but dwindling now? And, how can a country with 412 billionaires, and spending of around $2 billion a week for the Afghanistan war alone, have no resources for education of its youth?
Here’s why. The profit-driven capitalist system has entered its electronic stage, where it has no need to educate those it can’t employ. U.S public education was designed to meet the labor needs of the capitalist class. During the industrial era, public education guaranteed a supply of educated workers to design and operate the sprawling factories of the 20th century. Under the electronic (laborless) production methods of today, workers are becoming unnecessary to the globally integrated production process and are increasingly useless to the capitalist class.
So the corporations, through the government, are restructuring education to suit their purposes. They are taking virtually everything that used to be public, including education, and putting it under private (corporate) control. Today, business leaders dominate the boards of public universities, allowing corporations to run some operations, and then privatize whole institutions. Quality education today is being designed to serve the sons and daughters of the privileged few and just a narrow stratum of professionals needed to design and operate the robots and computers that increasingly carry on 21st century production. Step by step, the right to an education for all but the very rich is becoming a thing of the past.
The only solution is a new cooperative society where the socially necessary means of production become public property. Such a society would provide everyone with a high-quality public education. Education would not have to be tied to seeking a job (in the traditional sense) since robots and computers are eliminating jobs. Everyone could make their contribution to society based on their talents and skills. Everyone’s needs would be taken care of.
A key battlefield today, and a step in the direction of a new society, is nationalization of education—under the leadership and control of the working class. Nationalization means the federal government would support and fund education, but education would be shaped by the entire community. National standards would guarantee that every student would receive a free, quality education. Corporations would have no role in such a system. Public education would guarantee the greatest maximization of each individual’s abilities.
But nationalizing education still will not create a cooperative society. The fight for nationalization will open up a broader discussion about who controls the government and whose interests the government serves—the people or the corporations. This is fundamental to educating the public about their true interests and the new society that is possible. If we are going to have a government—and an educational system—of, by and for the people, we are going to have to wage a political fight for it.
