Conservatives pledge blind allegiance to public schools
Conservatives blindly worship public schools even as they rail against woke ideology, useless bureaucrats, and mass indoctrination.
I live in Northern West Virginia, a place most would call stereotypically conservative, heartland America, salt of the earth. Around here, people grumble about woke textbooks, useless bureaucrats, and indoctrination in the classroom.
And they’re right to. But here’s the kicker: When the local school levy’s up for a vote, most back it like it’s the Second Amendment.
So why the paradox? Why do so many right-wing Americans, at least in my neck of the woods, hate the curricula but defend the system?
Public schools as a civic religion
For conservatives, public schools mean Friday night football, band parades, the alma mater sung at reunions, and good old homecoming. It’s civic religion in practice: Stand for the flag, play the anthem, and relish in nostalgia under the stadium lights.
The building itself becomes sacred, even as toxic ideas breed inside.
If conservatives were truly fiscal conservatives, they’d recognize this is a state monopoly with a pep rally. You don’t need a taxpayer-funded bureaucracy to have football games or marching bands.
Community leagues and voluntary associations already do this without extracting property taxes from every homeowner.
Nostalgia is one hell of a weaponized drug
Ask anyone about their school days and they’ll wax nostalgic. They’ll remember their buddies, their first crush, and that big homecoming win.
They won’t remember the hours of wasted time, the regimentation, and constant message of “obey authority.” Nostalgia blinds people to the fact that school was about producing compliant citizens.
Conservatives know nostalgia’s a weak argument in other areas. They mock liberals for longing for FDR’s New Deal or the so-called glory days of LBJ’s “Great Society.”
Yet when it comes to schools, conservatives make the same emotional plea: “We turned out fine, didn’t we?”
Did we? A $12,400 price tag per kid in my old school district over in the neighboring state of Ohio as I write this, ballooning federal strings, and a generation of debt-saddled adults suggest otherwise.
The “better us than them” mentality
Many conservatives admit the curriculum is garbage, but they soothe themselves with, “At least in our district, we keep things normal.” It’s the illusion of local control.
The truth? Your local school dances to Washington’s and your state capital’s tune, and to that of publishers who print the same textbooks nationwide. That million-dollar federal funding slice in the district budget’s a leash, not charity.
Conservatives rail against federal control in healthcare, gun rights, or environmental regulation. Why give schools a pass?
If you wouldn’t trust the state or the feds to run your doctor’s office or your family business, why do you trust them with your child’s mind?
Fear of collapse
Parents know the system’s broken. But they’re terrified of what happens if it collapses. Homeschooling, private schools, co-ops — they feel too risky, expensive, and different. So conservatives stick with the devil they know. “It’s flawed, but at least it’s there.”
Isn’t that the same logic progressives (and some conservatives) use to defend Social Security and Medicare? “It’s unsustainable, but it’s all we’ve got.”
If conservatives applied their own principles, they’d recognize that voluntary, market-based education would thrive and survive, just as free markets do in every other sector. Fear isn’t an excuse to keep throwing money at failure.
Public schools as patronage
In small towns, the school district is often the biggest employer. Teachers, bus drivers, administrators, whole families depend on it.
That makes the school system more than an institution — it’s a jobs program. Criticize it too hard, and you’re questioning your neighbor’s paycheck.
But this is nothing more than a local version of the welfare state. Conservatives mock blue states for bloated public-sector unions, but defend their own district as “jobs for the community.”
That’s patronage, not conservatism. Real fiscal conservatism would mean slashing the dependency and letting people create value in the private sector, not clinging to government payrolls.
Conservatives and their selective socialist mindset
The paradox isn’t that conservatives in my region support their schools. It’s that they haven’t admitted the school system itself is the problem.
You can’t have a taxpayer-funded, state-run monopoly and expect it not to push state values.
Conservatives like to think of themselves as anti-state. But when it comes to schools, they drop the “limited government” mask and become the state’s most loyal foot soldiers.
If they were serious about liberty, they’d stop funding the indoctrination machine and start building alternatives. Until they do, nothing changes.
The truth resides in young adult fantasy
Market-based education’s one reason why I concocted my young adult fantasy series, Arcane Elemental Academy. In Book I, The Arcane Prophecy, Yote Diamondback finds out what true market-based education looks like and how it operates.
What’s more? She’s introduced to a thriving society where the private sector produces based on consumer demand.
You’re still getting chilling YA fiction here, almost a Harry Potter-like vibe. But with my blend of literary and genre fiction, the underlying tale’s front and center.
Meet Yote in my short prequel novella, Arcane Awakenings, where she’s slogging through her last days of traditional schooling. It’s a story where she challenges mean girls, cheaters, and her own worldview.
