An uneducated populace is generally easier to control - the easier it is to threaten their livelihood, the harder it is for them to rise up. Further, there's a clear correlation with education and what political ideologies you're likely to vote for. And, of course, if you long for the "good old days" when society was run by white christian men, then why would you want to help anyone else?

Did something give you the idea that it is frowned upon? The exponential growth of homeschooling and growth of private schooling in the past 15-20 years is a direct result of government run schools failing to do just that. In spite of ever increasing spending on education.

Homeschool and private schooling advocacy is driven at least as much by a desire to control curricula (usually fundamentalist christian stuff, but sometimes crunchy lefty stuff) as by a concern about the general quality of public education.

Is homeschooling really bigger than "homeschooling", like Montessori ?

The article says: "Some families wonder if the shutting of the schools is related to his D.E.I. retrenchment." My comment is directed towards: is basic education and child safety a D.E.I. matter (which in some political views are frowned upon)?

Serious question: where is this spending going? Also other commenters mentioned the increasing public spending on schools, with failing results. I keep hearing and reading stories about teachers having to buy their own pencils or bringing some food to school... is this a similar situation like the US health insurance system?

Partly. There do seem to be a lot of administrators.

Part of it is also schools spending millions on sports facilities that only benefit a small portion of the students. 99.9% of whom will never play a team sport again after high school. My own kid’s school just did that. Meanwhile they don’t even have a pair of $200 choir mics so parents can actually hear the school choir singing in the auditorium.

There are some very racist and/or xenophobic people that just want to see the people that they don't like hurting.

I know some people like that.

I read that there are basically 2 types of people that voted for Trump. People who wanted him to improve the economy and people that just enjoy the cruelty.

Sounds like you should talk to some real people.

I am not here to judge who voted for Trump and why.

All I can say is that I know people that vote for extreme right wing even when those policies will make their lives more difficult, only because it will hurt people that they dislike even more.

It is a bit weird to watch happening, but it is hardly surprising that those in power will capitalize on the frustration and spite of people.

Why would a racist care for anyone of a race they despise and vilify? Being a child has nothing to do with it. Children become adults and soak up the values around them; so if they hate the adults, of course they hate the children. Why would they want their perceived enemies to be safe and have basic education? That just gives them more resources to fight for revindication, which is a threat to the ones who hate them in the first place.

None of that is right, but it’s not difficult to understand either. Don’t try to find some complex logic behind it, the reasoning is incredibly basic.

> Children become adults and soak up the values around them;

If this is really what they are afraid of, wouldn't depriving them of basic education reduce the amount of common values around them and make matters worse?

Fair point, if hate is the ulterior motive. Do you think that hate strong enough it extends to children is widely present in the population and the public opinion?

> hate strong enough it extends to children

Eschew the thought that children are somehow special. They’re not. They’re simply a younger version of a person, not a separate being worthy of special reverence. A racist doesn’t hate another race and then hate their children on top, they just hate the race as a whole.

I don't agree. Children are special in that there are several psychological effects like baby schema, innate caregiving response, etc. which one would have to overcome. Seeing children as younger versions of adults is a very technical view which I'd be surprised if it was in any way prevalent.

You're absolutely right in that a text-book racist might not distinguish between children and adults. Imagining that this is so common it dictates decisions on this level is hard to grasp for me.

While schools were once segregated by law, today we continue to have de facto segregation that seems deliberately maintained.