A few years ago while visiting some family members in Haiti, one of my aunts and I got into a discussion about public education on the island.  My aunt was surprised that my brother and I had managed to find jobs and be successful after receiving most of our training at public institutions.  This was in direct contrast to our cousins who were all attending private schools and who were all taking the next step forward rounding off their educations in college, whereas their parents stopped in high school or a vocational school.   “In Haiti”, my aunt, now leaning forward as if whispering a secret, declared, “public means lesser than.” 

As 2009 draws to a close and we prepare to enter into this second decade of the 21st century, it appears as if my aunt’s declaration is beginning to carry over into the United States as well.  This is not necessarily a new phenomenon because public institutions have been fighting for their survival for the last thirty years, but these battles are becoming more pernicious.  Within the last six months alone we have witnessed a movement for healthcare refore undermined by talk of death panels and killing grandma, as one elected official after another stepped up in front of a microphone to pronounce their refusal to sign any healthcare bill that included a public option.  This in spite the fact more than 60% of Americans were in favor of the “public option.”

Rarely a day went by this summer without a news report appearing proclaiming the “demise of the public option.”  Many of us thought the waning public option only pertained to the health care debate, but by fall we realized that another slice of the public option was being taken off the table via cuts in public education funding.  Seeking solutions to deal with our current fiscal mess one state after another announced cuts to public education, laying off teachers, ending extra curricular programs and in the case of colleges and universities, raising tuition.  The University of California, this nation’s flagship public education system announced tuition hikes upward of 30%, a move that would make it more difficult for many to afford college at the very moment when millions of more Americans were reentering school to learn new trades, or to simply wait out this dismal job market.

And this week, closer to home, here in New York, another public option was abandoned, as the MTA voted to repeal free and reduced fare metrocards/bus passes for students.  This cost saving measure that will allow the MTA cut its budget gap will likely cost parents an additional 1,000 per year, per child, to send their children to school.  The MTA brass blamed Albany and the City Council for rolling back funding, but regardless who foots the blame, it’s city parents who are going to foot the bill.

A decade ago I would be joining the chorus of those chanting down babylon and saying this is another example of the government preferring wall street over main street, or invoking one of my favorite 1990s terms “corporate welfare” as the reason why poor people are being pilloried.  Alas, this isn’t 1998, the game done changed–or maybe it remained the same–and rather than conjuring answers, I only have questions.

Why do we dislike public services?  Or rather, why are so selective about the public services we embrace?  What makes public parks more enticing than public schools?  Why are we willing to underwrite private ventures like stadiums and arenas under the notion that they’ll bring jobs, but we won’t do the same for public schools, transit or healthcare?

I wonder what precisely is it about this historical moment that has led us to believe that the word public means, “lesser than.”

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