Educate and Punish

Safford v. Redding is as good an argument as any against universal public education. It shows with humiliating clarity how schools become arms of the Prohibitory state. A public school is a prison for children. Upon entrance, they are categorically deprived of their rights. Rights under the first, second, fourth, and fifth amendments are thoroughly abrogated. Students' speech is censored; they aren't free to assemble; a Swiss Army knife merits explusion; they may be deprived of property, searched without cause, evidence, or provocation. Read the transcript of the Redding arguments and ask yourself when was the last time outside of a prison or jail environment you heard continual references to "contraband."

Any student may be punished, singled out, stripped, humiliated, deprived of rights and privileges, or forced to perform labor based on administrative whim. We have a word for that sort of institution. Prison.