And so the public pays

Sometimes you get what you pay for. Sometimes you pay for what you get. Idaho is about to pay for what it got.

What it got last November was a pocket of politicians whose pockets (and ears) are open to the private sector but closed to the public. In fact, though the word public is embedded within the word Republican, it has become that party's negative buzzword, used by the GOP with the same disdain as the words socialism and big government. It is a drum Reagan Republicans have been beating since he was president, and now, long after his passing and apparent sainthood, people are being forced to dance to it again.

Ronald Reagan made the word "private" a holy word while the term "public" and the idea of public ownership became a bad thing. By using his copious acting and oratory skills he made America forget that our government was designed to be a government by, for, and of the people. Now, the people continue to forget that point as well as the fact that Reagan raised taxes several times after he initially lowered them. They also seem to have forgotten that during a period of his presidency known as the "Sagebrush Rebellion" he actually tried to sell off public lands to private citizens. Many public lands would have become private if not for the efforts of hunters and other users of the outdoors. But the push to privatize never left the blood of the Republican Party.

Now we have a country willing to rescue private banks and private corporations to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars but unwilling to spend a small fraction of that amount to rescue public institutions like schools. Citing the monetary woes of a recession caused by the very banks the public bailed out, Republican leaders have continued to dismantle public institutions, especially public schools. This push to privatize and squash the unions is masked as reform using titles like "Students Come First," but most of those who protested in Idaho and were not heard could see it for what it was. It seems several states with Republican governors have found this an ideal time to crush the unions by making them seem greedy and out of control, hoping the general public will forget that unions, in spite of their problems, have done a great deal of public good - but not for the wealthy. Idaho has joined in this movement, and if you look at the backers of the Luna plan you will find wealthy corporations with special interests in busting unions. Almost all of those in opposition to these new laws are part of the disappearing middle class.

The voice of the middle class is being muted by those with the power (money) to lobby and propagandize, and this bullying has been so successful that the Supreme Court has even given the rights of private citizens to corporations. Tax breaks continue for the wealthy in the stated belief that it is good for the economy. This keeps being repeated in spite of history having shown that Reagan's "trickle down" economics worked for no one but those at the top. But Republicans keep insisting that what's good for the wealthy is good for the rest, even as the separation between the top of the economic strata and those scrambling to gather some of its falling crumbs widens.

The latest blow to the public is being touted as "school reform." It is school reform, all right. It is a blatant attempt to privatize. Why should the public pay taxes to supply a "free" education to children when private companies could make money teaching our kids? In a marketing model, schools are still a relatively untapped resource of income. One of America's wealthiest men, Rupert Murdoch, has suggested that the possible profits in this field are staggering. "When it comes to K-12 education we see a $500 billion sector in the U.S. alone," he said in November. So if public schools are further depleted so the education supplied becomes only good enough for the lower classes that don't really matter to men like Murdoch anyway, families that can afford to flee to private programs will do so, and the money will flow into private pockets instead of into the public system that is becoming one more lost but noble fixture of the past.

The days of our society insisting kids attend school - even by force if need be - because it is the law and necessary for democracy, have already been replaced by home schooling, correspondence courses, and online classes, as well as a host of other gimmicks that continue to funnel funds to a private few and hurt the public. To ensure this trend continues to spread in Idaho, pro-private and anti-public Republican legislators elected in landslides last fall have vilified the teachers' union and have forwarded laws that destroy decades of good faith contracts as well as preventing teachers from arguing for kids' learning conditions. Creating a weakened ability to negotiate for salaries and benefits and nothing else, it is clear those lawmakers believe money is the only issue that teachers care about. Removing the fair due processes that districts and teachers have agreed upon over many years of negotiations is further evidence of legislators' low opinions of educators. But it also is a clear indication of their low opinion of the middle class that still makes up the general public.

It is also now very clear that Idaho is about to pay in ways far more painful than a few added pennies in taxes for what it got when it elected the likes of Otter and Luna and their cohorts. I was lambasted in The Press back in November for an article in which I warned readers that these men were anti-education and that we should expect something like this to happen. Sometimes being right hurts more than being wrong. Such is the case with these "Luna Laws." Now we will all pay for what we got, but I suspect some will pay more. Politically, two brave Republican senators from the north will pay dearly for standing up against the bullies in their party. Joyce Broadsword and Shawn Keough, two women with more courage than all of their male counterparts combined, voted against the measures. Broadsword called them a "direct slap in the face of every teacher," and Keough said the laws would "further undermine our efforts to truly put students first." If their fellow senators had that kind of political courage, perhaps one of them might have offered a law that raised revenue to public schools in Idaho, a state that ranks just one from the bottom in the U.S. in per pupil expenditures but whose students test consistently above the national average.

Instead, the public is forced to face laws that cut further into the already emaciated flesh of a school system that has been performing well beyond the funding it has received. Yes, Idaho has been getting far more than it has been paying for. Now we are about to pay for what we've got.

Mike Ruskovich is a resident of Blanchard.