this phenomenon happened in the 1970s to collapsing communities in the eastern coal fields when labor was broken by the automation of strip/surface mining. tons of schools “consolidated” and bussing there is still fucked, like hours and hours to get to the last school if your community fell apart first or had less political power when things died.
it has spread across most rural communities in the us as agricultural livelihood declined from crisis after crisis concentrated the land use into fewer and fewer households and hands, leading to a general collapse of rural life as everything that could be was converted into the 21st century mechanized export plantations. less automated systems (the salad bowls of central valley and the deep south) transitioned entirely to seasonal “guest” worker programs where immigrant labor is segregated from the municipal systems into trailer parks and areas with limited services and less rights.
it seems to show no sign of slowing down, even in the cities where people are internally migrating and gravitating toward for work, as the distress of an uncertain socioeconomic future makes the value proposition of having kids become more fraught.
its happening around where i am and older people try to resist it without really being able to articulate why, besides nostalgia. but i get it, that there’s something elemental about a community school closing. i don’t even have kids, but it bothers me too. i understand the math and the logic, but it feels like surrendering the infrastructure of hope for a better future.
There is such a vicious doom loop that is happening with childcare and educational services now. As there are fewer kids in the area, there is simply less demand and political will for providing them, and in any case it’s less efficient to provide that level of service for fewer kids. And potential parents know that - it’s obviously not the single deciding factor in whether to have kids or not, but it’s another straw on the camel’s back.
i feel like a jolt to the system would be banning private and home schooling. like fuck it, get your kids back in there, and if you don’t like the quality, invest some effing time and/or resources. the private and public school bifurcation is repulsive. and so are like homeschool jesus camps. i sympathize with the people trying to do it on their own to do something better than the public option in areas where the schools are fucked, but that’s not a fix. and education is a community resource that we all should be invested in and accountable to, like health.
of course, none of this is going to happen, because Fancy Toffworthy IV will receive the western canon at 14 to prepare him for his JD at Harvard and then the 501c4 industry advocacy circuit between favorable administrations where he gets a job as special counsel to the white house king.
this phenomenon happened in the 1970s to collapsing communities in the eastern coal fields when labor was broken by the automation of strip/surface mining. tons of schools “consolidated” and bussing there is still fucked, like hours and hours to get to the last school if your community fell apart first or had less political power when things died.
it has spread across most rural communities in the us as agricultural livelihood declined from crisis after crisis concentrated the land use into fewer and fewer households and hands, leading to a general collapse of rural life as everything that could be was converted into the 21st century mechanized export plantations. less automated systems (the salad bowls of central valley and the deep south) transitioned entirely to seasonal “guest” worker programs where immigrant labor is segregated from the municipal systems into trailer parks and areas with limited services and less rights.
it seems to show no sign of slowing down, even in the cities where people are internally migrating and gravitating toward for work, as the distress of an uncertain socioeconomic future makes the value proposition of having kids become more fraught.
its happening around where i am and older people try to resist it without really being able to articulate why, besides nostalgia. but i get it, that there’s something elemental about a community school closing. i don’t even have kids, but it bothers me too. i understand the math and the logic, but it feels like surrendering the infrastructure of hope for a better future.
cmon. 5? wat r u doin?
We know one thing they are and a couple things they arent doing.
There is such a vicious doom loop that is happening with childcare and educational services now. As there are fewer kids in the area, there is simply less demand and political will for providing them, and in any case it’s less efficient to provide that level of service for fewer kids. And potential parents know that - it’s obviously not the single deciding factor in whether to have kids or not, but it’s another straw on the camel’s back.
i feel like a jolt to the system would be banning private and home schooling. like fuck it, get your kids back in there, and if you don’t like the quality, invest some effing time and/or resources. the private and public school bifurcation is repulsive. and so are like homeschool jesus camps. i sympathize with the people trying to do it on their own to do something better than the public option in areas where the schools are fucked, but that’s not a fix. and education is a community resource that we all should be invested in and accountable to, like health.
of course, none of this is going to happen, because Fancy Toffworthy IV will receive the western canon at 14 to prepare him for his JD at Harvard and then the 501c4 industry advocacy circuit between favorable administrations where he gets a job as special counsel to the white house king.