While not an entirely original thought, it is worth examining how education functions as a commodity in an economy where ownership is increasingly out of reach. Housing is unaffordable for many, and everything from entertainment to transportation is no longer owned, but rather controlled by tech companies that can revoke access at a moment’s notice. In recent years, educational policies—often championed by conservative leadership—have fostered environments where students are packed into overcrowded classrooms, passed through grades without mastering foundational concepts, and handed diplomas despite being completely unprepared for the workforce or reality.

The long-term consequences of these trends are becoming painfully clear: an unprepared electorate, worsening social inequality, rising housing insecurity, and systemic economic instability. Given these collapse-level challenges, now is a critical moment to reevaluate our educational standards and demand functional models for learning.

Upon leaving the military and returning to school, classroom overcrowding was one of the first issues I noticed—and educators have been screaming about it for decades. To throw some actual research at the problem: a recent article from the National Education Association (NEA) points out that “…the most prominent research on this topic originated in Tennessee nearly four decades ago. Supervised by Harvard scholar Frederick Mosteller, Project STAR (Student-Teacher Achievement Ratio) analyzed outcomes for approximately 6,500 elementary students divided between smaller environments of 13 to 17 pupils and traditional groups of 22 to 25. Mosteller demonstrated that children assigned to reduced-size settings achieved markedly higher test scores—an advantage that endured over an extended period.” So, we know why students are struggling, yet we change nothing and keep piling them in.

We also have to acknowledge the class divide. Wealthier parents ensure their kids are enrolled in AP classes, Dual Credit tracks, or private schools that siphon public funds—guaranteeing their own children every possible advantage while leaving lower socioeconomic students in the dust. We love to chant “No Child Left Behind,” but as my title suggests, the reality is that all the adults are being left behind.

Working in a public school, I can attest that every single teacher knows what the problems are. We are forced to implement “equitable grading policies” that give kids credit for doing literally nothing. We push students to the next grade, even when we know they cannot read, write, or earn a single credit? Don’t worry, you get to stay with your class! We have “seniors” in high school who haven’t earned a single high school credit. But don’t panic: we’ll just let them cheat their way through an online credit recovery program or hand them a meaningless diploma anyway. Because why should anything matter?

Well, it does matter. It matters the second these kids turn 18, step into the real world, and get left behind.

Don’t just take my word for it—look at the numbers. The National Alliance to End Homelessness’s latest report states that homelessness is at a record high, demand for services is surging, and homelessness is spiking specifically among vulnerable groups. You know, the exact groups we are “not supposed to leave behind” while we spend twelve years passing them along with zero expectations, zero accountability, and zero actual skills.

And if homelessness doesn’t get them, our system has another convenient landing pad: prison. The Prison Policy Initiative reports that the United States holds the largest incarcerated population in the world, with nearly two million people locked up. Hmmm… I wonder if our failing, check-the-box school system has any correlation to that? Probably best not to think about it too hard, or someone will scream about their tax dollars paying to educate a child—while completely ignoring the $445 billion we burn every year to lock up the very adults we failed to give a chance.

There’s no point in glossing over the growing inequality. Our oligarchs are practically drooling at the prospect of technofeudalism, and this is precisely how we get there: shove working-class kids into classrooms of 39 to guarantee they never learn critical thinking or marketable skills, watch the oligarchs whine about the lack of a “reliably skilled workforce,” and then funnel the rest of the population into bullshit prison labor or gig-economy meat grinders to make billionaires even richer.

Someone asked me the other day if I was heated about this. Damn right I am. I am furious at any administration, district, or government that takes its most vulnerable human beings and leaves them rotting in overcrowded classrooms when we have more than enough money, resources, and trained people to make a real difference. I am furious at a country that can sink hundreds of billions into prisons and the military while leaving its own people uneducated and disposable.

Goodbye freedom, hello technofeudalism.

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