A recent article discusses how Tennessee has created a legislative task force to explore becoming the first state to reject hundreds of millions in federal education funds, including money to support students with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Prior to the pandemic, Tennessee received over $265 million under IDEA to help provide free appropriate public education for students with disabilities. If IDEA funds were rejected, legally mandated individualized education programs would likely continue under state law, but the loss of funding could severely impact the quality and availability of specialized services and staffing that students rely on. Whilst procedural and political barriers remain, the move signals a concerning risk to hard-won protections and resources for vulnerable student populations.
This effort to reject federal education funds in Tennessee could be viewed as part of a broader movement to privatise public education across the country. A few reasons this might be the case:
Rejecting federal funds would lead to cuts in resources and services for public schools in Tennessee. This could degrade the quality of public education and drive more parents to explore private school options.
Some of the politicians advocating for rejecting funds have ties to the school privatisation movement and organisations that support things like school vouchers and education savings accounts. Weakening public schools aligns with their ideological goals.
The lawmakers have not clearly articulated what "federal interference" they want to avoid by rejecting funds. Lack of transparency raises questions about whether their ultimate aims relate more to privatisation and less about state's rights.
Claims that rejecting federal funds won't reduce overall education spending seem dubious. If funds are cut, Tennessee would have to find hundreds of millions in new money to backfill losses – a tall order. Cuts seem inevitable.
Whilst framed as federal overreach, the reality is rejecting funds risks degrading public education. Combined with politicians' school privatisation ties, it's reasonable to view the effort as part of a broader nationwide push to shift students out of public school systems. The most vulnerable student populations have the most to lose if quality and specialised services erode.
Efforts to defund and privatise public education reflect the prioritisation of capital over human development. The potential rejection of federal funds in Tennessee serves corporate interests by weakening one of the last remaining public institutions not yet fully commodified for profit motives.
The politicians advocating these austerity policies receive significant financial support from pro-privatisation entities who stand to gain from the transfer of public dollars to private, corporate-run alternatives. This represents the capitalist class purchasing favorable policy outcomes from their sponsored political representatives. The associated rhetoric about autonomy or budget discipline serves as a ideological smokescreen for what is essentially a fascist alignment between corporate lobbyists and legislators.
Similarly, the global trend towards austerity in education funding reveals a transnational corporate agenda to access public education markets, facilitated by corrupt government officials willing to chronically underfund the sector over decades. The lasting impacts disproportionately land on marginalised groups - furthering inequality along racial and economic lines. This reflects a linkage between racism and capitalism, where human development takes a back seat to shareholder profits.
Whilst austerity is packaged in race-neutral terms, the underlying motivation is to preserve wealth, power, and advantage for elite white communities. Many commentators point to a long historical pattern of such policy violence towards communities of colour. The current efforts of the corporate-sponsored right wing in Tennessee to defund public schools continues this shameful legacy. Only a collective challenge to their commodification and privatisation agenda can stem the rising tide of inequality and injustice.
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Very concerning-thank you for sharing 👍🏻👍🏻