Nobody talks about it, because it could cost them their job.

The state of public education in Louisiana is where it is because of the process of elimination, a variation on the old don’t-tax-you-don’t-tax-me-tax-the-guy-behind-the-tree routine. It couldn’t be the politicians’ fault for cutting public education to the bone. No, those courageous servants of the public trust only have our children’s best interests at heart when they slash funding and give the remainder away to private companies. Those sort of cuts toughen a young person up and are a teachable moment in crony capitalism.

It couldn’t be the parent’s fault for opting out of involvement and turning the system into a perpetual daycare program. Drop them off at 6:30 a.m. and do not get them until 4:30 p.m.; unless, of course, they’re in aftercare. Besides, all the time and effort they don’t spend down at these schools only teaches their perpetually, perfect children the spirit of independence. The sooner these kids start acting like adults, the sooner their parents can renounce all responsibility for them.

And it certainly couldn’t be the children themselves. After all, to hear all those insightful college professors and put-it-in-a-book experts, those beautiful young minds are never wrong.

But there is a problem with the schools, so someone must be to blame. And we all know know that it is the teachers and their terrible, barely existent, unions who are what ills our schools. You know, the people who show up early, stay late, and have PTSD dreams about their experiences. Let’s punish them. We should increase their hours, decrease their pay, and take all the flexibility from their schedules. Furthermore, we should glut their system with short timers looking to pad their resumes before law school, force them to be evaluated by people who take two hour lunches while teaching six hours a week, and burden them with policies that empower bullying families to cast large shadows over their classrooms. And… my personal favorite, make all their work irrelevant in the face of a single test.

After all, education should follow the corporate model where fear is the governing factor.

I wish they had a more responsible voice on their side. Instead, it is going to be me.