Linda Darling-Hammond, a Stanford
University professor and the current president of the California State Board of
Education, is heading up Joe Biden’s education transition team. And she is a
big fan of the Chinese Communist Party’s state-run education system. The Washington
Free Beacon reported that she praised China for its “magical
work” in creating a unified and robust teacher-government presence in
student life. Well, there is no doubt the government has a robust
presence in the life of students. And every other citizen. She is also on
record commending China for dramatically increasing public funding of
education. That is easy to do when you confiscate most of what the public
earns. In a 2017 book she wrote, she proclaimed: "Teachers in China are revered as elders, role models, and
those whom parents entrust to shape the future of their children. In the Tao
traditions of ritual, the phrase 'heaven-earth-sovereign-parent-teacher' is
repeated and becomes ingrained in how people see themselves holistically
governed and supported." They certainly are “holistically governed.”
“Sovereign” refers to Chinese President Xi Jinping, who does whatever the hell
he wants, not to the people, who are anything but “sovereign.”
The CCP routinely sends agents into classrooms to oversee things
and snuff out any possible dissemination of western values or “improper”
remarks. Oddly enough, that is just what happens in our own
schools! Moreover, Xi Jinping has declared that China's systems of higher
education must "serve the Communist Party in its management of the country,”
and that "adherence to the Party's leadership is essential to the
development of higher education in the country." Oddly enough, that is just
what happens in our own schools, where students must toe the Democratic Party
line and conservative Republicans are universally considered to be enemies of
The State! And the similarities don’t end there. In China, anyone
who does not strictly adhere to the whims and mandates of the Communist Party
is subject to swift punishment. In 2013, for example, a Chinese economist who dared
to openly criticize The Party was removed from his position at Peking
University in Beijing. Hell, in the U.S., professors
get the axe on a daily basis for having the temerity to espouse
conservative positions. Reuters reported that
Peking University subsequently “established a 24-hour system to monitor public
opinion on the internet.” Universities don’t have to go to that trouble in the
United States, as Twitter,
Facebook, Instagram, et. al., do that job for them.
Darling-Hammond has reportedly
long been on Harris’ Biden’s short list for Secretary of Education, but
she recently removed herself from consideration, vowing that she is
committed to staying in The People’s Republic of California, also known as West
(East?) Beijing, and working with Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom to achieve
their goals for The State.
It appears that the
Biden administration and the New Democratic-Socialist Party are committed to
replicating the “magical work” the Chicoms have done with their education
system. With one exception: you won’t find any talk of social justice warring,
the LGBTQIA community or trans rights in a Chinese classroom.
Wasn’t it Confucius who
said, “Power corrupts—and absolute power corrupts absolutely?”
Maybe not.
But I know it wasn’t Gavin
Newsome, Linda Darling-Hammond…or Eric Swalwell.
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