When compared to the concerted, well-orchestrated, and well-funded conservative
attacks on teachers and all public employees, on unions, on schools and
the curricula, on the rights of minoritized people, on voting rights, on government
responsibility for nearly any of the hard-fought collective rights that have been
won by the majority of people in Wisconsin and the rest of the United States, the
prevailing discourse and policies in Argentina constantly reminded me of how far
Can Education Change Society? 3
we have moved in right-wing directions in the places where I live. The right to
collectively bargain has been immensely weakened. Education is seen as simply
factories producing test scores and docile workers. Teachers and all public workers
are treated as unworthy of serious respect. Affordable health care and pensions are
under threat. Women are losing control of their bodies. Environmental protections
are being taken away. Economic inequalities are at their highest rates in decades
and are widening even further. And the rates of incarceration among people of
color are a national disgrace. All of this is coupled with cynical legislation to depress
voting among the poor, the elderly, people of color, anyone who might vote
for those “bad” policies that ask people to show compassion and respect for
those many, many real people left behind in a society that seems to have lost its
ethical way.