Yesterday, I wrote in my journal that I haven’t heard too much talk about back to school from our grandchildren. Last night, however, I was following our son around the farm as he did some chores. At each stop, the five year old was running around the yard, making sure that we noticed that she was running. She would say, “See you at the finish line!” as she took off and “Booya! Booya! I win! I win!” as she got to each place ahead of us. She told me that she had to run every day because she wanted to be in shape for the jog-a-thon. She said she was going to win the jog-a-thon at Custer Elementary School. Her plan is to run a lot to be in good shape. She said if she didn’t, she might lose to Silas. “But I’m going to win. They have prizes and everything!” she declared.

She is going to be a kindergartener at the school this year. It will be her first year at Custer Elementary. What she knows about the school comes from what her sister and brother told her. Last year was their first year at the school. Her sister was a first grader and her brother a fifth grader. All of the children had been home schooled for a year and a half due to the Covid pandemic, so going back to school last fall was a big deal to them. The talk of the jog-a-thon came from the fact that her sister had gotten out her school yearbook from the previous year and there was a two page spread about the jog-a-thon that included a group picture with her sister in that picture. I’m sure her sister had been telling her about the event. Since last year was the first year the kids had gone to that school, I don’t know if the jog-a-thon is an annual event, or something that just occurred last year. It is a fund raising event, and we sponsored both of our grandchildren who ran last spring.

Getting in shape for the jog-a-thon was one of the first mentions I had heard about school starting, but it clearly was one of the topics of conversation at our grandchildren’s house last night. In addition to the running training and looking through the yearbook, there had been some shopping for school clothes and there was talk about the school schedule, including an open house at the junior high school this week and the first day of school the following week.

I don’t know how long the daily training will last, but I guess I should be ready to meet our granddaughter at the finish line next time I see her. She has already told me that I’m not as fast as she. I wasn’t feeling much like running last night, but I do have a considerable advantage in that my stride is about double hers.

The serious side of back to school can be observed in the schools scrambling to hire teachers. An unprecedented number of professional educators are leaving the profession. The attack on public schools in our country is cause for alarm. We read almost daily about public schools that are banning books. NPR reported last week that The Bible is among dozens of books removed from the Keller Independent School District outside Fort Worth, Texas. School staff were instructed to remove books from classrooms and libraries including Anne Frank’s dairy, all versions of the Bible and numerous books with LGBTQ+ themes or characters. It appears that any book that receives an objection from a parent is being removed from the school.

Book banning and teacher shortages are just part of the larger attack on public education in our country. Recent legal challenges have resulted in governments being forced to finance private schools. What is being called parent choice is not choice at all for the majority of parents. It is forced funding of private education at the expense of public education. The result is a weakening of public schools. It has long been the case that wealth and privilege are big factors in who is able to obtain higher education in our country. Now there is a clear divide in the quality of education based on the ability to pay.

The belief that education should go to the highest bidder is a rejection of a basic tenet of public education as a social leveler and a means of class mobility. When we fail to offer free quality education to all of the children of our communities, we create huge injustices. Often these inequities follow racial and ethnic lines. The landmark Supreme Court Case, Brown v. Board of Education laid an important precedent not only about racial justice, but also about access to education as a basic right of all citizens. Forcing the funding of private schools that are inaccessible to the majority of students with public school funds creates a new kind of “separate and unequal” situation in education. Add to that the so called “culture wars” that is driven by fear of education and the development of critical thinking skills and the attack on the integrity of professional educators and it is clear that our public school are under attack. The very concept of free and equal public education is threatened.

Back to school in post-pandemic America clearly illustrates how the attacks of a few well-financed ideologues can threaten a long-established social institution. Our response needs to be careful. Instead of getting caught up in an argument about particular books, we need to challenge school boards to clarify their policies about banning books. If the standard is a single complaint, then eventually all books could be banned. You can imagine what is possible in schools where a single complaint results in a book being banned. The core curriculum of the school and textbooks could easily be banned.

The attack on public education is real. Now is the time for the defenders of the concept of public education to stand up and speak out.