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When I was growing up in the country, a traveling circus came to town, and my parents let me go. At least, I think they said it was okay. I’m pretty sure they did.

At any rate, my best bud Tommy Wood and I went. We used to like to say that we weren’t afraid of nothing. By the time we were 16, we had busted noggins, chipped bones, black eyes and a mile of road rash from falling out of the back of a pickup truck that was going way too fast for a graveled road.

But that spring evening just before sundown, when the “authentic prehistoric man” looking about as Neanderthal as possible ambled onto the tiny stage and growled, we about wet our pants. We were scared. Speechless.

I’m reminded of that evening’s shock when I think about what is happening to public education, one of the most precious entitlements we have. For as long as any of us can remember, sending our children to our local public schools was as American as can be. It was a safe and secure place to learn so that, down the road, we had opportunities. So that we might choose the direction our lives would go.

Even though nothing is wrong with our local public education, we are watching it being wethered at both the national and state level in a way that is both sinister and cruel.

Sinister because the motivation is to bring local education to heel and to hide it from the public’s view. In Washington, the rush is on to cut off its head. Under the guise of “reform,” North Carolina is pushing its version of thimblerig, the ancient game of guessing under which cup the pea is hidden.

Today the taxpayers and parents are watching the cups being moved around on the table by officials at the highest levels of our state and in Washington. The pea is our public school system, which the politicians want to convert to charter schools wherever they can.

The sleight of hand they are working is that charter schools are better for us, when the fact is that most charter schools are privately managed businesses designed to make money for a corporation while being given permission by the state to do their work in secret. Unlike public schools, charter schools in North Carolina operate behind a shield of state protection that prevents the public from gaining information about them.

We just learned that a chain of charter public schools in North Carolina owned by Charter One, an Arizona company, is under investigation for multiple violations of state and federal requirements, including protecting students with disabilities.

Meanwhile, the powerful in Washington are moving quickly to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education so that no one will be watching the pea under the cup.

Larry McDermott is a retired local farmer/journalist. Reach him at hardscrabblehollow@gmail.com