Teachers know what's going on personally and politically outside school can have a profound effect inside their school and classrooms. Undaunted, they are expected to put on their “miracle worker” costumes to adjust to any respective fallout. The recent July 2006 NBC/Wall Street Journal poll will add to their costume wardrobe.

The July 27, 2006 NBC News headline read, “NBC/Wall Street Journal poll: U.S. pessimism on increase.” When educators return to school in a few weeks, they'll be asking where the ‘pessimism' costumes are. The sub-headline added, “Doubts about children's future and concerns about wars weigh heavily.” Oh, Lord – “Doubts about their children's future” too. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings is worrying about her “knowledge economy” and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) high-stakes testing education act, but parents are having fears way beyond that. Of course, public school teachers will be expected to carry on in their classroom as usual no matter what doubts parents are having about their children's future or other “pessimisms” they aired. It won't be easy this fall. “All in all, do you think that things in the nation are generally headed in the right direction, or do you feel that things are off on the wrong track? Headed in the right direction; 27 percent: off on the wrong track; 60 percent: mixed; 11 percent: not sure; 2 percent.” Okay, so maybe it's just a “blip” on the radar screen; a “bad hair day.” Not quite. Next poll question.

“Does this feel more like a short-term blip where things are going up and down, or more like a longer-term decline where it seems that things are not going to be as good for a long time?” Short-term blip; 12 percent: Longer term decline; 81 percent: Not sure; 7 percent. After these responses, even the pollsters were shocked. “This is just a horrendous set of numbers,” said Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, who conducted this survey with Republican Bill McInturff. “The mood is as dank and depressing as I have ever seen.” Educrats are already worrying how they're going to use the “glass half full – glass half empty” attitude test with new teachers. “The glass is almost empty!”

Now to the “issues” selected for the poll. Although it might have been considered by the pollsters, “education” did not make the final cut for the 10 finalists. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise for Spellings & NCLB, Inc. to be excluded. Pessimism can be contagious. The question was phrased, “Let me list some issues that have been proposed for the federal government to address. Please tell me which one of these items you think should be the “top priority” for the federal government.” Listed in top priority in percentages were: The war in Iraq, 29 percent; Terrorism, 14 percent; Job creation and economic growth, 12 percent; Energy and cost of gas, 11; Health care, 11; Illegal immigration, 9; Reducing the federal budget deficit, 5; Environment, 4; Other, 1; All equally, 4. (The last two included “voters who did not plan to vote.” The poll claims the “margin of error for 1,010 interviews is plus/minus 3.1 %.”

“Yet, perhaps the most revealing finding in the poll,” said NBC reporter Mark Murray, “is how little the political environment has changed in the past year.” For the eighth straight survey since October 2005, President Bush's job approval rating sits below 40 percent; for the fourth straight time since March, just a third approve of his handling of Iraq; and also for a fourth straight time since March, only a quarter believe the nation is headed in the right direction, he noted.

“And this isn't good news for Bush and the Republican Party said the pollsters who conducted this survey,” according to Murray . “(It) means that – outside of an extraordinary event – the political environment is pretty much locked in as we head into the November elections.” Democrat pollster Hart commented he felt like “Republicans are in a barrel and headed toward Niagara Falls .” Republican pollster McInturff said Republican incumbents who wait until the fall to begin engaging their Democratic opponents will be “rolling the wrong dice.” Considering the survey results, he stated, “They are going to have to run very aggressive campaigns at an individual level to separate themselves from the national environment.”

This might be easier said than done. How do you separate the head from the body, especially when your blood stream of money donations is frequently coming from the same conservative and corporate coffers? Ideologically cemented together on national, state and local issues has proved to be their godsend to control state legislatures and Congress. The Wall Street Journal might have been included in the joint effort of the national poll, but it was by no means pleased with the results. It, along with other conservative media, has been a major cheerleader for President Bush's political policies, including his invasions and occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq . Although War in Iraq continues to be the “top priority” of concerns causing “pessimism,” WSJ cast its vote with Israel 's invasion and proposed occupation of southern territories in Lebanon , too. Whether it admits it or not, these 3 wars of invasion and occupation in the Middle East can have profound immediate and long term effects that permeate throughout the heralded “Global marketplace.” Nations, like people, take sides “for and against.”

Praising the Reason Foundation's “20 th Anniversary Edition” of its annual global privatization report in its July 29-30, 2006 weekend edition editorial, WSJ eulogized “the success of privatization, 30 years on.” Proclaiming victory over socialist policies throughout the world, it said “The U.S. never went as far down the socialist path as these nations, but privatization has also yielded gains here. Corporate subsidies and regulations in banking, energy, and financial services were rolled back in the 1980s, and the freight railroad Conrail was sold.” Both in the U.S. and abroad there is still much more privatization that could be done, it claimed. After listing several areas needing more privatization in the U.S. , it bemoaned, “But these are trivial wastes compared with the public monopoly over the vital social service of education. It is no accident that education is one of the only modern services that has experienced a steady erosion of productivity. The advancement of charter schools, vouchers, and private scholarship programs has been much too slow for the well-being of our poorest children.”

Looking ahead, the Reason editors see much more private investments in public roads, water systems and airports. The main obstacle in all of these cases, they asserted, is “entrenched interests, such as unions and public employees, that intimidate politicians into opposing competition.” According to the conservative foundation, “Building a political strategy to overcome this opposition is one of the main challenges of our time.”

Well, maybe some of the Reason Foundation's supporters did show up on the NBC/WSJ poll – but representing that portion of the issues listed “Other, 1 percent.” Of course, when your foundation's goal is privatization at all costs, with a “main challenge” of overcoming opposition from “unions and public employees,” this would be a difficult issue to include in any national poll, bordering on political suicide. There's enough “pessimism” already.

Amazingly, the obvious inclusion of public education in the Republican Party's ongoing attempts to dismantle and privatize public services is still off the political radar screen. Similar statements like “the public monopoly over the vital social service of education” in the Reason Foundation report have been aired by voucher and private charter school supporters since George W. won the election. Guilt-tripped by the NCLB high-stakes testing education act, allegedly scripted to improve low-income students' (primarily students of color) education – educrats and politicians chose to “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” instead. That school vouchers were included in the original NCLB should have signaled a serious warning and concern. Including “school sanctions” (with school closure, if necessary) when smaller school populations of special education or English learning students failed to achieve “adequate yearly progress” (AYP) was another “red herring.” Using testing as it's “high priest,” NCLB scribes outfoxed the public education henhouse. Overwhelmed with orchestrated, high-cost, bureaucratic testing demands from NCLB overlords eventually created a backlash on the public school front lines – but it was too little, too late. By this time, privatizing hustlers in the public education domain were loading their bank accounts from book sales, school equipment, consultants and former public school students. Cities, states and school districts selected for the voucher “flower pot experiment” have gained an economic foothold over others in the NCLB “marketplace.” Whether or not some schools and districts improve or don't improve is secondary to the ultimate cash bonanza for education privatization gurus.

Are all the private charter, religious and private schools that now collect tax dollars more successful? According to recent education studies, nope. Compared with factors like race, ethnicity, income and parents' educational backgrounds, there's not much difference. In some national tests, public school students even scored higher.

For certain, Spellings is not complaining education was left out of the NBC/WSJ poll. But don't expect her to provide compensation for teachers' “miracle worker” costumes this fall either.