"Pity the U.S. public school,'' begins a report in a recent issue of American Prospect by Geoff Rips, the former editor of the Texas Observer.

"It is the last social institution left standing that mediates the entrance of most Americans into the lives of their communities and American society in general.

"A responsibility once shared on a much broader scale with churches, political parties, voluntary associations and labor unions has now devolved almost entirely upon our schools.

"The public school is responsible for all children who appear at its door: from families kicked off the welfare rolls, from homes with teenage moms or dads, from homes with parents who work two or three jobs, and from homes of the comfortable, the educated, the read-to,'' he writes.

Yet more and more Americans point fingers at the public school system, blaming it for practically everything that's wrong in the country these days.

"While there are no standards governing the lives of the children going in -- let's say for health care or housing or family income -- there are all kinds of standards for measuring schools and schoolchildren coming out,'' Rips points out.

The solution offered by today's politicians -- from Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist, a Democrat, to Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, a Republican -- is not to somehow tackle the issues that confront public schools, but to actually punish the schools instead.

Here in Wisconsin and now in many other parts of the country, political leaders are opting to suck more money out of the public schools and give it to the private schools through a so-called "choice'' program.

Indeed, although the jury is still admittedly out, some private schools may actually be able to offer a better basic education, if not a better educational environment. But, well, they should. They typically get only the "cream'' from the public schools, the students whose parents care.

They don't have to follow many of the rules and regulations that the state has imposed on its own public schools. There's no need to spend time with special education kids or worry too much about the severely disabled. Why, they don't even have to open their records to the scrutiny of a nosy public like the public schools do.

There's also no escaping that the successes enjoyed by the taxpayer-aided private schools will eventually come at the expense of the kids left behind, for whatever reason, in those public schools.

And what will eventually happen to that grand notion that produced public schools in the first place -- that education is the great equalizer and the flower of American democracy? Former State Superintendent of Public Instruction Bert Grover used to rhapsodize how white kids, black kids, rich kids, poor kids, all learn from each other in our public schools and become better citizens as a result.

As Rips suggests, we should be looking at how we can change what's happening to kids before they come in to the school system rather than spending all our time -- and public money -- on how they come out.

He concludes:

"Until we set higher standards for school funding, for living wages and for social services designed to redistribute income; until we create decent housing and provide for adequate health care and day care; and until we create vast job opportunity for those with none, standards for learning for large numbers of children will be unreachable and irrelevant.''

Dave Zweifel is the editor of The Capital Times.

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