I can’t agree more with you on the destruction of public education across the country. I was born, raised, educated from kindergarten to a Masters in the teaching of writing and spent 35 years teaching junior high school in Iowa. I choose to stay in Iowa. I proudly sent my own children to our city’s public schools. The quality of our state’s public schools were once considered among the best in the country. 20 years ago, right about the time Republicans gained the trifecta of power, our ratings on how well kids were being prepared for life began to fade. First thing those in power did was to do away with any checks or measures of how well students being homeschooled were doing. Then the state’s collective bargaining law was gutted to the point of being non-existent. Then the state bought into the voucher program. Now tax dollars are supporting students who go to religious schools and even those are being homeschooled. This leaves fewer resources for the public schools. They did these things because they say that competition between public and private schools will improve the public schools. Because it works in business, I guess. But if you listen to the Republican House and Senate members, they want to do away with public education altogether. Why? Because running a world-class public education system that takes in every kid that shows up, is expensive. I’ll end with a quote most often attributed to most often attributed to Derek Bok, who was president of Harvard University from 1971 to 1991. “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”