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Politics : View from the Center and Left

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To: JohnM who wrote (10445)	2/1/2006 11:14:39 AM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) of 543694

The school board must sponsor public boro wide votes each year in which the budget must be either approved or disapproved. Which makes it socialist system. A democratic socialist system since people are voting, and one that is voted on a very local level, so it might possibly be very responsive. But the school board is as much a government institution as the office of the mayor or a city council, or a state legislature or a court. The school board is elected by the voters and they are expected to set policy parameters. Which makes them a government institution. But it's been my experience, just recently renewed with some participation, that the only real power they have is to hire and fire the top most rank(s). An adept and able superintendent of the system is easily able to manipulate school board members who know little about the intricacies of operations. And Hoover manipulated several presidents in a row. Does that make the FBI something other than an arm of the government? If the bureaucrats are really in charge it doesn't make it a private organization. Its still part of government. You might argue that k-12 public schools have monopoly control and that's tantamount to socialism. Not really. A monopoly isn't automatically part of government (although more often than not it is maintained with government help). Also while government organizations often, perhaps usually have little or no competition it isn't an essential part of them being government institutions. Karen tried another argument. While recognizing that the public schools are a government institution she argued that "socialist" shouldn't be used if the good or service is usually provided for by the government. She gave the example that you usually don't talk about a socialist defense system. I don't really buy that argument either but I find it somewhat interesting. I think you don't normally talk about a socialist defense system because defense is so commonly provided for just by the government that "socialized defense system" is largely redundant even if it is technically accurate. Tim

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