In a 1961 “Twilight Zone” episode called “The Obsolete Man,” writer/host Rod Serling described what might be the world of the future:
“It has patterned itself after every dictator who has ever planted the ripping imprint of a boot on the pages of history since the beginning of time.
“It has refinements, technological advances and a more sophisticated approach to the destruction of human freedom. But like every one of the superstates that preceded it, it has one iron rule. Logic is an enemy, and truth is a menace.”
Never in my wildest nightmares did I think I’d live anywhere like that, but it’s where Donald Trump, his Project 2025ers and their allies in state governments are pointing our country.
Trump’s incoherent babbling and lies are the most obvious signs of the hatred the White House cabal harbors toward logic and truth, but its war against public education is inflicting even greater harm.
The Trump administration has already threatened to withhold funding to school districts that it deems inadequately racist, sexist, anti-LGBTQ+ or bigoted. Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas have eagerly passed laws requiring displays of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, and Oklahoma is indoctrinating high-school students with MAGA conspiracy theories and Christian nationalism.
With a GOP Senate and Democratic House and governor, Pennsylvania hasn’t enshrined such aggressive attacks into law, but our state government has its proponents of measures that would weaken public education.
Jeff Yass, Pennsylvania’s richest man, dreams of ending “government schools” and has plowed money into organizations that lobby for taxpayer-funded scholarships to private schools.
Intentionally or not, legislators, mostly in the GOP, are playing his long game. In May, the Senate Education Committee passed such a voucher bill, which our own Dave Argall co-sponsored. And Pennsylvania already offers hundreds of millions of dollars in tax credits for donations to private-school scholarship programs that don’t necessarily benefit low-income students.
Most Pennsylvania public schools are already underfunded, which a Commonwealth Court judge ruled unconstitutional in 2023. Although the state provided funds toward closing the “adequacy gap” between low- and high-income districts last year, the Legislature is 2 ½ months past its deadline for this year’s budget.
(Data from PA School Works shows adequacy shortfalls for all 12 Schuylkill Intermediate Unit 29 districts, from $1.6 million for Schuylkill Haven to $12.7 million for Pottsville.
Gov. Josh Shapiro and the Democratic House proposed a $526 million increase for K-12 education, while the GOP Senate passed a flat budget, which would essentially cut that and other spending due the inflation we’re all experiencing.
The Democrats have also called for a cap on funding for cyber charter schools, which have lower operating costs than brick-and-mortar ones. That would save school districts a combined $378 million, but the bill has stalled in the Senate.
Members of Schuylkill Indivisible, which I co-chair, stood outside Argall’s Pottsville office on Monday and called on him to push his colleagues in Harrisburg to pass a budget – with fair funding for our schools.
“We need the next investment in closing the adequacy gap and eliminating underfunding so every child has the tools and opportunities they need to succeed,” said Kristin Volchansky, advocacy director for our affiliate organization In This Together NEPA, which organized the demonstration.
Strong school systems also help preserve democracy, according to American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten.
Although educators have plenty to worry about, Weingarten told members of the Red Wine & Blue advocacy group that she titled her new book “Why Fascists Fear Teachers” because when schools do their job, they’re an effective barrier against authoritarianism.
Dictators fear knowledge, critical thinking and the safe and welcoming environment that a good school provides because they want to instill “fear and loathing of the other,” she said.
To counteract this, schools can offer programs and activities that engage kids and take them away from their phones, and adults can support schools so they remain an essential part of the community.
“It’s really hard to have an us-versus-them,” Weingarten said, “when everybody’s in the same classroom, when everybody’s in the same auditorium, when everybody’s doing the same spaghetti dinner.”It’s also hard to sell a dictatorship to people who’ve been brought up to think for themselves.
Lisa Von Ahn is an experienced columnist previously published in the Pottsville Republican Herald newspaper.
Canary note: Opinions expressed in any Op-Ed column appearing on this site are the views of the writer and are not necessarily the opinions of Coal Region Canary.
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