Here, go read this.  I’ll wait.

For those of you too lazy to do so, here’s the money quote:

“People who don’t have money don’t understand the stress,” said Alan Dlugash, a partner at accounting firm Marks Paneth & Shron LLP in New York who specializes in financial planning for the wealthy. “Could you imagine what it’s like to say I got three kids in private school, I have to think about pulling them out? How do you do that?”

My.  One’s heart aches for him, ne-c’est pas?

I am reminded of my first couple of years in the classroom, in the building that is now the Central Education Center.  At the time, it was Central High School and served as the 9th-10th grade campus for Newnan High School.

Before 1970 or so, it was the high school of the black school system here in Newnan.  Yes, we had three school systems: Newnan, Coweta County, and the black school system.  I don’t even remember its official name.  But in 1971, we took the bold step not only of consolidating the city and county schools, but also integrating at the same time.  Could have been madness—it was boring, thank goodness.

Anyway, five years later and I’m back in my hometown teaching, and lo! parents were beginning to get a tad upset because their children were attending a school that was completely under-equipped, especially in the science labs.  How could the school system permit such a thing?

And I thought at the time, You assholes—it was fine for the Negroes to attend that school and not have any Erlenmayer flasks.  Perhaps if you had taken care of those students and their education, you wouldn’t be having this problem now.

It’s the Commons, people: take care of everyone and what we all  hold in common, and we will all benefit. Take care of your enclosure, and eventually you will suffer as well.  That’s something that even Ayn Rand and her slaves to selfishness might understand.

So, Mr. Dlugash, if that is your real name, if you had been more ferociously supportive of the public schools, making sure they were delivering excellent education to every single child no matter what the income level of their parents, you might not have such a terrible terrible dilemma on your hands now.  So can I imagine what it’s like for you?  Yeah.  Can I comprehend it? Nope.  Sorry.