Teach to Live

What will happen when once wealthy parents pull their children from private schools and place them in the public system? How will the already underfunded bureaucracies of urban public schools deal with this influx? I especially wonder how these parents, accustomed to being heard by administrators and teachers and used to paying for a say in the way their children's school works, are going to adjust to disenfranchisement. Arnold Schwarzenegger will be their head mistress; good luck getting a private audience. I have heard that two in three private schools with under four hundred students will close in the next few years. I do not know the statistics, but I do know that means my school is likely to close. I am likely to be looking for a job, along with the other good and bad teachers that have lost their jobs. This is the first time in my career I have felt subject to a possible institutional failure, and I should be grateful - I have heard so many times (every year?) of public school layoffs for lack of funds. When one signs on to be a part of a culture of the wealthy, even as a minion he or she nevertheless becomes subject to that culture, and the culture of the rich that has seemed so invincible for so long all of a sudden feels vulnerable.