Social Security Privatization Fails; GOP Turns to Public Schools

The partial privatization of Social Security pushed by the Bush administration and the Republican Congress failed miserably last year, failing to really even get off of the ground as a result of widespread public disapproval. Stymied on that front, the White House and it's GOP allies in the Congress are now turning to another government program, public schools, for another effort at partial privatization. Diana Jean Schemo has the story for The New York Times.
With Education Secretary Margaret Spellings joining them in a show of support, Congressional Republicans proposed Tuesday to spend $100 million on vouchers for low-income students in chronically failing public schools around the country to attend private and religious schools.
As The Washington Post's Lois Romano notes, it's not even clear that a partial privatization scheme for our public schools would result in an improved education for students.
The proposal comes four days after the independent research arm of the Department of Education issued a report showing that public schools are performing as well as or better than private schools, with the exception of eighth-grade reading, in which private schools excelled. The results prompted questions from foes of vouchers about why taxpayer money should go toward private schools instead of toward improving public schools.
George W. Bush and the Republican Congress are going off of the same playbook they have been following for years. Whenever any questions emerge about a public program, privatization is their answer.
The Social Security trust fund might run empty in 35 years... partially privatize it. Want to add a prescription drug program to Medicare... partially privatize it. Want to make the War in Iraq seem less expensive... partially privatize services (to Halliburton and others). Public schools are underperforming because of budget cuts... partially privatize them through vouchers.
The American people do not want to see their necessary services farmed out to corporations or private institutions, but Republicans nevertheless continue in their effort to sell off massive chunks of the American government like it was a business they just bought with junk bonds. Oh, Republicans will use terms like "vouchers" or "personalization" to make their plans more palatable to voters, but no one should mistake what their real intention is: negating America's promise to this generation and future generations by systematically privatizing public programs.