Justwin! Get in here!
What do you want me to say?
I just figured you would have an interesting opinion on getting rid of government schools
Sure, I'd be in favor of getting rid of government funded schools. Obviously, the only way it would be possible is for there to be some grants/credits given to low income households. It's something that will never happen, though. There are way too many parents that want free daycare. Given this it's not something I really ever worry about in politics.
A distant second preferred option would be to give everyone an education credit that could be used at a government-run school, a private school or your homeschool. You could make testing a requirement if you wanted to receive the credits. I could see this happening, but I doubt it ever will.
Greg Abbott is not in favor of getting rid of government funded schools. He just wants to not have to pay for the kids of immigrants here illegally. Denying these kids an education is not something that gets me revved up. I'm only interested in the Supreme Court overturning the decision because I don't think it's something the federal government should be able to force states to do.
You seem like a generally smart guy, so I’m disappointed you don’t recognize this as a pure dog whistle. It makes zero economic sense to not educate children in your own community. Refusing to do so based on race is like tazing off your own nutsack a thousand times over.
This is why I wasn't saying much when this was initially posted. I don't think Greg Abbott's motivations are the same as mine when it comes to this case. For me, I don't think the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment applies here. I also generally believe in a much smaller and less powerful federal government. If I had the ability to do so, the federal government would be 1/10 to 1/5 the size it currently is. I view overturning this decision as a small step towards reducing the power of the federal government. I think Greg Abbott views it as a way to specifically deny children of immigrants here illegally a free education. That's not really my motivation, so I'm not going to be out there pumping Greg Abbott up on this. That's what I meant about not getting revved up about denying these kids an education.
In terms of education in general, if there was no universal government funded education, that doesn't mean there would be no education at all. Lots of families would still pay to send their kids to a school or they would stay home and educate their children themselves. I specifically stated that you would have to have some sort of support for low income households. I don't think you need subsidies to convince many upper middle class and middle class families to educate their children.
You also don't need eight hours a day to educate kids. However, actually educating kids is not the primary function that schools serve for many parents. Their view of the primary function of schools, whether they want to admit it or not, is to provide daycare for their children. You saw this in the pandemic when so many parents were complaining about having to be at home with their kids and not being able to be at work. I also think it is demonstrated by how many poorly performing schools are tolerated in society. While the education might not be good at these schools, they are serving their daycare function, so we're not going to really do something about them.
If schools functioned 100% just to educate kids, I'd certainly be less opposed to government funding of them. I'd still be opposed, I imagine, but much less opposed. I just don't think we need to be providing free daycare to everyone in the country.