Republican politicians have long sought to reduce the effectiveness of the government in the United States, including public schools, with the aim of transferring public money into private hands, especially corporate hands. This strategy also involves deregulation, which can lead to disastrous consequences, and reducing taxes for the wealthy. In Iowa, Republicans have approved a massive transfer of public funds to private schools that mostly serve right-wing Christian communities. Supporters claim it’s about school choice, but opponents say it’s a smokescreen for a blatant attempt to indoctrinate children into white nationalist ideology. These developments are part of a larger trend that seeks to discredit and dismantle public institutions and replace them with private entities that prioritize profits over the public good.
The GOP’s Agenda to Privatize and Reduce Government
Grover Norquist, the founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, is famously known for his statement in 2001 where he expressed his desire to reduce the government’s size to a point where he could “drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” This sentiment is shared by many Republicans, who have successfully reduced the government’s effectiveness since Ronald Reagan’s presidency.
The GOP’s agenda focuses on several goals, one of which involves transferring public money into private hands. This game has been played for generations, with attempts to privatize Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, prisons, and major parts of the defense and space industries. Now, the public schools in many parts of the country, including Iowa, are also at risk of privatization.
Another goal of the GOP is to deregulate industries, often with disastrous consequences. For example, the historic collapse of the Texas power grid, the train derailment and toxic consequences in East Palestine, Ohio, and the SVB and Signature Bank failures all resulted from deregulation. Corporations resist regulations that impact their bottom line, but smart regulations protect us all.
Smart regulations require companies to protect the public and internalize costs when corporations would rather externalize costs. Private Texas utility companies would rather have thousands of Texans suffer and die than spend the money to build out their infrastructure in a responsible way. Railroad companies would rather risk toxic spills that imperil life and our water supply than pay to have reliable brakes on trains. Bank regulations are also viewed as too onerous. Republican legislators applaud and enable these actions.
A third goal of the GOP is to reduce taxes for the wealthy. Underfunding the government and ensuring underperformance is used to demonize the underfunded government efforts, making arguments that public money should be diverted into the private sector instead because the private sector can allegedly do it “better.” This rationale becomes a reason for even more private investment and lower taxes.
In summary, the GOP’s agenda aims to privatize and reduce government effectiveness. Their goals include transferring public money into private hands, deregulating industries, and reducing taxes for the wealthy. However, these actions often have disastrous consequences and put the public at risk.
GOP’s Plan to Privatize Public Schools and Redirect Public Funds
The GOP’s plan to privatize public schools and redirect public funds has been unfolding in Iowa and across the nation for years. The slow financial strangling and demonization of public schools have paved the way for the direct infusion of millions and eventually billions of taxpayer dollars into the private sector. Private schools, mostly Christian, are set to receive an unprecedented infusion of public funds, while public schools are looking at some tough cuts.
Infusing Public Funds into Private Schools
Beginning next year, Iowa families, almost exclusively Christian, will have access to up to $7,598 a year in an “education savings account” for private school tuition. There are no income limits after the bill is fully implemented. In three years, every private school student in the state will be eligible for those funds, with cost estimates of $345 million per year.
The plan is brilliant in that it uses public money to fund private schools that will teach Republican ideology. It is a near-perfect plan by Republicans to maintain power into the distant future by manipulating the minds of our children with taxpayer money.
Private Sector Profiting from Public Funds
It is not just that the private sector will profit from the administration of these dollars and from creating curriculum or founding schools. It is more insidious, being specifically about putting public money into the pockets of mostly right-wing Christians to help them go to Christian schools—many of which share Republican “values” that marginalize LGBTQ and other minority communities, diminish their historic contributions, and share perspectives on fiscal, tax and environmental policies.
Public Schools at Risk
The Des Moines Public School system is considering cutting staff and closing buildings in the wake of Iowa’s Republican-led Legislature’s budgeting decisions that have kept funding increases below the rate of inflation for years. The 3% increase for next year is less than half the cost of inflation, leaving many of Iowa’s public schools facing some tough cuts.
Several bills currently being considered or recently passed in the Iowa Legislature propose increasing unfunded mandates that will make teaching in the public schools even more difficult. Across the nation, this scenario is playing out, with public schools slowly being starved and facing intensifying scrutiny, while private schools have little oversight and are free to pick their students and do anything they want with the money.
In conclusion, the GOP’s plan to privatize public schools and redirect public funds is becoming increasingly evident in Iowa and across the nation. Public schools are slowly being starved while private schools, mostly Christian, are set to receive an unprecedented infusion of public funds.
Iowa’s Private, Mostly Christian Schools to Receive Public Funds
All but six of Iowa’s 183 nonpublic schools have a religious affiliation of some kind, the vast majority Christian, including every nonpublic school west of Des Moines. These schools will be receiving $345 million dollars a year, with private, out-of-state for-profit companies making money hand over fist administering voucher programs, providing course content, and more.
A Distraction from the Real Agenda
Proponents of this plan claim that it’s about “school choice,” but it’s not. School choice is merely a distraction, as are the attacks on public schools, teachers, curriculum, books, librarians, teaching of history and values, CRT, and the LGBTQ community. They are distractions with devastating consequences, but distractions nonetheless.
A Time-Tested Methodology
These distractions are part of a time-tested methodology, a variant of the Mohawk Valley Formula, which is a plan for strikebreaking. The same process that breaks unions today is being used to break down government institutions, including public schools from preschools through the university system. The methodology discredits the institution in any way possible, demonizes the employees, uses a publicity barrage, misrepresents them, lies as needed, makes appeals to law and order, and patriotism. And now, Republicans are one-upping the methodology, saying that God is on their side.
Indoctrination into Right-Wing Values
It’s not about school choice or anything else they say it is. It’s about diverting public money into private hands and indoctrinating our children into a right-wing values system that is increasingly a white nationalist ideology. Christian nationalist adherents comprise a stunning 29 percent of Americans, many tens of millions.
Public school teachers are under-resourced, demoralized, and even called “groomers.” Fox “News” and other conservative media continue the assault every day with lies. And Republicans continue to wave the flag and praise Jesus, even though these values are unAmerican and not even close to the Christian values learned in Sunday school. It’s all window dressing.
In conclusion, Iowa’s private, mostly Christian schools are set to receive public funds, with private, out-of-state for-profit companies profiting from administering voucher programs, providing course content, and more. The distractions from the real agenda are part of a time-tested methodology, which is being used to break down government institutions, including public schools. The real agenda is to divert public money into private hands and indoctrinate our children into a right-wing values system that is increasingly a white nationalist ideology.
The Real Agenda: Power and Disruption
According to some, Democrats think it’s all about policy, but it’s not. The real agenda is about power and disruption. When the smoke clears, American right-wing Christians, the most wealthy and privileged people in the history of the planet, play the victim while robbing the poor and middle class to serve the ideology of the current Republican Party and corporate overlords.
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