Ah, Public Education, The Great Unifier of the “Union”

[Draggingtree]

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Ah, Public Education, The Great Unifier of the “Union”

This post is number twenty-six in a historical series discussing Mississippi’s Whig/Republican governor and senator, James Alcorn, following the War Between the States and continues with the background against which Mississippi’s rejected progressive “reconstruction” would ultimately be decided in Congress. My last post, 27 September 2015. related specifically to this matter. For earlier posts on Alcorn, (best read in sequence from oldest to most recent), start with 17 February, 24 March, 16 April, 17 July, 24 July, 18 September, 9 October, 23 October, 5 November, 22 November, 15 December, 29 December 2014, 13 January, 24 January, 9 February, 24 February, 9 March, 31 March, 8 May, 10 June, 30 June, 3 August, 30 August , 13 September, and 27 September 2015.

________________________________________

One of the most onerous (and by way of enactment, offensive) programs the “progressive” usurpers implemented in the South was that of public education. It was a proven program in New England, the rest of the North was taking it up, and in order for the backward South to be “proper” Americans, their betters in the North expected Southerners to accept it as a price for re-entering the Union. Indeed, Southerners, given their ignorance, should consider themselves honored to be blessed with the beneficent guidance of the North’s expertise on matters of public education. Yes, that is sarcasm you’re reading in my words.

 

There were a number of problems with enacting the program the North expected (at least those up there pushing the program). One, it was very expensive and the “overhead” for it was purchased in the North at the expense of the already tapped-out Southern taxpayer. Much has been said about the South’s resistance to public education during this time—the primary assumption being Southerners didn’t want the Negro educated. Well, I won’t argue that one point, but I sure the devil will put it in proper context. The South had major priorities for its money in the aftermath of a devastating war, and spending money on “bones” cast to a polity being manipulated against her taxpayer wasn’t how Southerners wanted it spent, particularly when the spending was done in a prodigal manner by self-aggrandizing people who were not representative of said taxpayer.

http://loblollylog.blogspot.com/2015/10/ah-public-education-great-unifier-of.html