Public education under duress

Stephen Downes "Governments should stop funding higher education" has a link to a Dallas Observer News article by Jim Schutze (March 17, 2011) with this quote "Up until this very moment I don't think many real people understood the magnitude of the ferocity of the attack being mounted on the basic institutions of our democracy by the ultra-right" That does seem to be the endgame. We've got items like this: What if public schools were abolished? with the argument that society means to take over our children and "indoctrinate them into civil religion." It seems in line with John Taylor Gatto's views about school as "indoctrination." Stephen Downes promises a longer paper soon with the argument that public education should be defended. I think this is what Jim Groom and Alan Levine were also defending in earlier comments concerning EduPunk. To the extent that EduPunk rails against "school," it plays into the hands of those who want to undo public education.