Bruce Lesley looks at how public systems are leaving parents and families to go it alone.
Thanksgiving is a holiday rooted – at least aspirationally – in family, community, gratitude, and shared commitment. It’s a moment to ask: what kind of nation are we building for the next generation?
Are we creating one in which children are cherished, families are supported, no child goes to bed hungry, and public institutions reflect the values we profess around the dinner table? Or are we drifting toward a model of isolation – where families are left to fend for themselves, and childhood becomes a competition depending on how much parents can pay or how well they can game the system?
It’s not just exhausting. It’s atomizing and isolating.
Unfortunately, federal policy increasingly reflects what Ruth Wilson Gilmore refers to as an agenda of “organized abandonment.” Public systems and partnerships once built to support families are being deliberately dismantled – from education to health to environmental safety. Investments in children are declining dramatically, while parents are being told they must do it all alone.
It begins with something as small as a preschool application. In communities across this country, families are spending thousands of dollars – sometimes even hiring consultants – to prepare their toddlers for high-stakes interviews, all in the hopes of securing a spot in an elite preschool. It reveals something deeper than just anxious parenting: it’s a sign of a society where every family is being pushed to go it alone. Even worse, some parents feel they must strive to gain a “leg up” for their own child and actively oppose helping less fortunate children, as if childhood is some sort of Hunger Games – where one child’s gain must come at another’s loss, and competition has replaced care.
Under this Administration’s policies, we are witnessing a slow-motion dismantling of the very systems that help support families and children. From education to immunizations and from food safety to product safety, public infrastructure is under attack. Teachers, librarians, scientists, and pediatricians are being undermined. Agencies are being gutted with the message that parents are on their own – isolated, atomized, distrustful, overwhelmed, and solely responsible.
This is the heart of the problem. Abandonment of society’s responsibilities marketed as “freedom.” Read the full post here.