Vladimir Lenin is popularly attributed with coining the term “useful idiots” – a description of Americans who were in effect doing the bidding of the communist Soviet Union – and subverting American exceptionalism – in the name of global humanity.
Lenin “has left the building,” but his leftist agenda lives on among progressives who are obsessed with trying to subvert our free market economy. And it’s those progressives who control the nation’s teachers unions and the rest of the education blob which manipulates a naïve and sympathetic public to do their dirty work.
Many parents have come to believe that the red ink in public school budgets has been caused by politicians who have scaled back the increases in public education spending. Parents have been duped into thinking that it’s the “evil” and miserly politicians who are to blame for government schools going broke. Parents don’t want to confront the fact that it’s the pensions, benefits, and other perks for the adult school employees that have brought the system to the financial brink. Worse, parents have fallen prey to the notion that spending must be increased or little Johnny’s art teacher will have taught his last finger painting lesson.
The teacher unions are fighting for their very survival, and have taken to creating a sense of panic among parents, in hopes the public will push the unions’ agenda. As a result, some parents become desperate to do something – anything – to fix the problem.
That desperation seems to have motivated a group of California parents to create a music video that features a group of elementary children singing the following words:
“It’s my school, your school
Gotta get dough for our schools
This money won’t raise itself
But we can
“Unity! Community!
Funds, funds, funds, funds!
Looking forward to the next year
“No more music, PE, drama,
Spanish and art class goin’ bye bye
Funds, Funds, thinkin’ about funds
You know what I mean …”
The video – which appears to have been filmed at a taxpayer-funded school – is as pathetic as it is absurd. At one point, the children take turns putting money in a donation box, only to have an actor portraying Uncle Sam take the money out of the box and stuff it inside his coat.
But greedy Uncle Sam gets his comeuppance when a janitor puts a broom stick to Sam’s throat, as if it were a saber. That allows the children to take their vengeance by tying Uncle Sam to a tree.
The video completely ignores the fact that it is the responsibility of the states to fund public education. The federal government has no Constitutional role in keeping the teacher unions’ gravy train running on time. That’s just one example of the video misrepresenting the facts.
Thankfully, EducationNews.org provides a bit of a reality check:
“The average California school spends [about] 84% of its operating budget on personnel, which includes salaries and benefits for teachers, administrators and support staff. California ranks in the middle in education funding at [about] $10,000 in per pupil expenditure, but ranks first in teacher compensation with an average salary of [about] $66,000.
“The state also ranks first in the number of households in which the head of household has not completed high school — about 1 in 4 — and is considered to have one of the highest tax burdens in the United States.”
But the “useful idiots” can’t be bothered about facts when there’s propaganda to be spun and heart strings to be tugged.
Nevertheless, here are the full lyrics to the song, courtesy of EducationNews.org:
“My School, Your School”
7 a.m., waking up every morning Even less budget for the public schools Things gettin’ bad, they’re gettin’ serious Seeing everything going, going
Cuttin’ the [unintelligible], government’s slashin’ Never know when they gonna stop Wanna save our schools? Do what you can
Too many kids in a classroom 36 kids in a classroom So many budget cuts How much can we take?
It’s my school, your school Gotta get dough for our schools This money won’t raise itself But we can, we can
It’s my school, your school Gotta get dough for our schools This money won’t raise itself But we can
Unity! Community! Funds, funds, funds, funds! Looking forward to the next year
No more music, PE, drama, Spanish and art class goin’ bye bye Funds, Funds, thinkin’ about funds You know what I mean
I got this, you get this, Give a little bit back to the schools I got this, you get this Givin’ back is so cool
Too many kids in a classroom 36 kids in a classroom So many budget cuts How much can we take?
It’s my school, your school Gotta get dough for our schools This money won’t raise itself But we can, we can
It’s my school, your school Gotta get dough for our schools This money won’t raise itself But we can
Unity! Community! Funds, funds, funds, funds! Looking forward to the next year
First they cut the TA’s Then they cut the PE Cut, cut, cut the art class And cut the music Not gonna have any left
Tomorrow you can start to help But you can’t do it by yourself I know that we can do it together
MC Custodian Carl!
Always sweepin’ up the hallways (hallways!) and the classroom (classroom!) I’m the lone custodian (Yeah! Yeah!) All day, every day, MC Carl keeps the school tidy (Clean!) But my job is in jeopardy (C’mon!) We need to raise the budget desperately (We need some help!) Now’s the time, make noise, be heard now Gotta step up, c’mon, c’mon y’all
It’s my school, your school Gotta get dough for our schools This money won’t raise itself But we can, we can
It’s my school, your school Gotta get dough for our schools This money won’t raise itself But we can
[Repeat]
Unity! Community!
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