Health Care, Student Loan Overhaul & Social Justice

Tucked away nicely inside the bill that will bring the eventual nationalization of our heath care system are provisions to dramatically alter something totally unrelated: college student lending. The add-on sends billions of dollars into Pell Grants for students by closing the long-standing and highly used Federal Family Education Loan Program, which allowed banks to compete and offer government-backed student loans. Loans for college students will soon be only filled through the government thus removing yet more freedom and more choice. And do not tell me that this was to help disadvantage students as they have always had the funding. This could all radically change. Perhaps these middle class students whose parents make a certain amount may one day not have access to government money? Doubtful, I worry more about how on God’s Green Earth we are going to pay for this along with the health care baby that is being delivered? Mark my words, we will all pay higher taxes and fees regardless of income. So this is yet another move by the government to implement its progressive and social change policies.

But there is a potentially larger and far more radical consequence. When your child has only the government to help get the money they need to go to college, what is to stop the government from making certain conditions? For example, perhaps kids will have to take a certain class during their 4 years of college or maybe attend a specific conference (all paid for by the government, of course)? I know, sounds harmless. But what if this entails your child to take a class like Peace Studies (sounds so harmless, but if you investigate you will see a deeper agenda. I will write more on this later.), or attend a conference designed by members of the Educators’ Network for Social Justice or some other conference that is sponsored by the Teacher’s Activist Group. Or better yet, maybe your student will be required to get involved in the Education for Liberation Network or maybe Teachers for Social Justice.

And maybe your student can take a class by an educator from one of these conferences and who attended a seminar such as this:

The Zinn Education Project: Making it work for you
Mary Hauser, National-Louis University
Howard Zinn, one of education’s giants died last month. He was well known for his civil rights activism and his progressive (some say, radical) views of teaching history. This session is designed to provide a brief overview of Zinn’s life and work and then consider how his ideas can create a classroom in which students and teachers ask questions, view issues from multiple perspectives and understand that objectivity is not a possible or desirable outcome of learning in the social sciences. Participants will draw on their classroom experiences as they consider the following questions in small group discussions: What are some of the major problems in how history/social studies is taught? How can teachers foster critical thinking and avoid rote memorization of facts? What resources are available? What specific strategies will develop an anti-racist perspective?

In case you did not see the bold print (my emphasis), I’ll repeat: “This session is designed to provide a brief overview of Zinn’s life and work and then consider how his ideas can create a classroom in which students and teachers ask questions, view issues from multiple perspectives and understand that objectivity is not a possible or desirable outcome of learning in the social sciences.”

Teaching Social Justice in the classroom is all about the fact that for these educators “objectivity is not a possible or desirable outcome of learning in the social sciences.”

That is my problem with Social Justice and its ilk. And you can call me crazy, but if things do not change you could very well see such requirements for students who take government money for college.