The education system is under attack. This time, it's not the Conservatives-in- Democrats-Clothing who co-wrote and co-sponsored The No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. (Teddy Kennedy, I'm talking to you). This time the threat is far greater. It's coming direct from the heart of the conservative movement and it's being seen as the silver bullet that will prevent the conservative movement from splintering into a thousand pieces this year.
The idea is known by the harmless enough sounding name of Education Incentive Reform but it is to school vouchers what intelligent design was to creationism: a far more sophisticated attack on education.
Education Incentive Reform is something that far-right education groups, such as the Foundation for Teaching Economics, and Heritage Foundation have been musing away on for years, but the idea is only now leaking onto conservative blogs such as Townhall.com, ahead of its release ahead during the elections.
The irony is that the reason education in this country is in decline are the reforms that the conservatives have been making to the education system. What's the point of half a trillion dollars on war, when at this rate, our kids won't even be able to read the bill, or add it up?
Teachers know the story is different: classes are over-crowded, schools are under-funded. While there are pockets of excellence in America, they sadly correlate to the richest suburbs, leaving the rest to get a sub-standard education.
This is the message that progressives must carry into 2006.
We must let people know that education is on the decline and that it's under attack by conservatives. We must do everything we can to make people aware that the only agenda in education reform is the wholesale privatisation of our children's future.
This is something we can win. If every teacher and every student and every parent sent just one email to their member of Congress, opposing the privatisation of our children's future, then it would be the biggest show of force in America's history. The Vietnam moratorium would look like a small picnic.
Education unions should take the lead and run massive advertising campaigns placing education at the forefront of people's minds when they voted at the ballot box, heading off conservative attacks on our children's future.
That the education system is failing is all the conservatives fault. The fact that Teddy Kennedy drafted the No Child Left Behind Act is no excuse. They must be made accountable for the mess they This is one battle that's too important not to win.