We Need Communist Education for Classless Society
CALIFORNIA, USA ââThe college president sees students only in terms of how much money they might bring in,â a counselor accused. âHe doesnât even think about how to use the money to help them succeed.â
Everything in capitalism is about âmoney.â  But we donât think enough about how different education can and should be.
For example: under a new âfunding formula,â California community colleges will get state money based (in part) on how many students get degrees. What are âdegreesâ really? Why must students take a seemingly random bunch of classes to get one?
A little history lessonâŠ
In medieval Europe, degrees were steps for young men who were training as clergy. As priests, they would spread the ideology that helped the landowning nobility maintain its brutally exploitative social order (feudalism). The church was central to that ruling class.
The rising capitalist class mobilized masses to overthrow feudalism.  Then it adapted the academic system to meet its own needs.  After the French Revolution of 1789, the new government took control of the UniversitĂ© de France away from the Catholic church. Now it would spread bourgeois ideology â still to keep the masses oppressed.
The French capitalists also extended scientific and technical training for civilian and military engineers. Those with degrees served the new capitalist state â or helped capitalists profit.
In the 19th century US, most colleges trained young men as ministers. They spread religious ideology to support the capitalist social order â including slavery. A few elite colleges granted âdegreesâ to sons of the ruling class to identify them as future rulers.
After the Civil War, US industrial capitalism grew rapidly. It established government-run âland-grantâ colleges on land stolen from indigenous people. These trained the agricultural scientists and industrial engineers it needed to rise as a world power.
The number of college degrees skyrocketed. Some certified technical competence.  Many were tickets to government jobs in teaching, law enforcement, social work and other professions that help the rulers control the masses.  College degrees served to divide the working class by assigning some a social status higher than the rest.
âŠAnd some thoughts for the future
Will communist society offer degrees?  No. Our classless society will not use schooling to create social distinctions. We will all participate in making and carrying out decisions, so nobody will be anointed as a âruler.â
Much communist education will revolve around productive work. Everyone will be able to develop technical skills in one or many fields.  âProfessionsâ like science, medicine, engineering and teaching will be absorbed into workersâ collectives. Communism wonât need lawyers â or clergy â or degrees.
Communist education will also deepen our collective understanding of history, philosophy and other aspects of culture. This will help develop communist social relations. No degrees needed!
âThe first universities were collections of student-run residential colleges,â commented a friend. âI wonder if there is a connection between student-run versus state-run institutions and how that might impact capitalist pursuits.â
In communism, everyone will work and learn throughout their lives. Each of us will be a worker, a student, and a teacher. Together we will figure out forms for all social institutions â and end all capitalist pursuits. No money involved in education or anything else!
Restructured Community Colleges: Reform, Reaction or Revolution
Community colleges are closely tied to the job market. They absorb the âreserve army of the unemployedâ during recessions. (âDonât rebel, get a degree.â)
One way they help the capitalistsâ bottom-line is by having students and/or workersâ taxes pay for job training. (Capitalists used to pay workers to learn âon the job.â) Increasingly, community college programs like âGuided Pathwaysâ steer students directly into employersâ arms.
Some teachers like this: âWe want students to get degrees quickly that will lead to a job.â Others are appalled at a wave of new corporate-driven policies imposed by the California State Legislature (controlled by Democrats). They donât want students treated as commodities processed on an assembly line.
Itâs not easy to move the discussion away from this reformist debate. When teachers and students donât see the working class as a potentially revolutionary force, communist politics may seem interesting but not especially relevant.
Increasing the circulation of Red Flag will help to show thatâs wrong. This paper describes the class struggle raging worldwide. It shows that the masses in motion are responding to communist ideas. Communist revolution is the only way to begin to create the education â and everything else â that the working class needs.