Neoliberalism and Education

Neoliberalism is referring the to the spectrum of involvement of the government and private entities, and it certainly has a strong, and relatively important, relationship with education. Government has a huge say, as it is at present, in a huge part of education in this country. Although we may not be completely aware of it on a daily basis, even here we sit at a public state-funded university, and most of us attended public secondary schools. The government controls many aspects of education, because they provide the funding for said entities. Public schools have to abide by rules and regulations set forth by the government. There is also a standardization of schools and ways to evaluate said schools and their success. The taxes we pay as inhabitants of this country help to provide the schools with teachers and buildings in which to learn. However, what we've seen lately is the emergence of a a growing number of alternate schools, those that are not publicly run but privately run. This is seen largely in cities, often with the addition of charter schools. These schools are privately run schools in a public system, and fall much closer on the neoliberalism spectrum to the left (towards private), but many still follow the curriculums set forth by governmental institutions that set standards.
It is hard to separate the involvement of government from the working of schools; they are tightly entwined. Schools are one of the things which government provides for us. However, depending on who is running the government and making the decisions, the things that are mandated can be very dangerous and detrimental to the quality of schools and students they produce. When govt controls the end all say all of schooling, it means that govt will want to use the schools for means that might promote the government, and not necessarily have the best interest of the schools and students in mind. Some people may argue that what's good for the government is good for the people, but c'mon, we all know that's not true, at least not anymore. Our government does not represent the majority of the people in this country, and is often self-serving to the tune of those in office and high ranks. There has been a decrease in funding and education of the arts as our government tries to groom its children to keep up with the rest of the world as they advance is science and mathematics. The government does not put enough value in education, in my opinion. Although, it is also our society as a whole who does not put enough value in it, as we move farther and farther from the natural state of things and our attention spans wane, too often people look to entertainment rather than enrichment. Dumb people are easier to control.
On the other hand, government is good for education for the same reason its involvement may be detrimental to it. Government puts mandates on education, such as requiring children to attned schools until a certain age, and this places at least some value on education. Of course, when the child reaches 16 and can choose for herself whether or not she wants to continue attending the underfunded school, she can, and she's old enough not to be a burden on working parents. Government also put mandates on equal opportunity for all to go to school, including the disabled, which is great. But, on the subject of government mandates, we have things like NCLB which shows no vested interest in education at all and provided no positive advancement in the schooling of our nation. Yet, its mandated, and will probably lead to huge change in educational practices in this country when the schools are evaluated.
In writing this freewrite, I am beginning to realize that I don't actually know completely how the system works within the government to regulate schools and education. However, I do know that I think there should be a group formed, funded by the government but separate from it, that had the true interests of education in mind as they were amending policies and setting goals and mandates. Like the EPA for the Environment. The EPA for Education!! The Education Protection Association. Of course, we see when douchebags like current dictator in power pull funding from organizations because they go against said moran's personal investments. And this is why government's hand in education needs to remain, but needs to better regulated by powers that actually have education as EDUCATION in mind, not personal political goals or personal advancement. Also, it becomes hard for politicians to focus on issues like education when there are severe pressing issues at hand, such as economic crisis, disasters, and war, but this does not mean that education drops on the totem pole of importance. How can we possibly advance a nation without advancing the people of it first?