Jeff Bezos got married on a yacht last week, and you probably saw it. The tabloids and timelines lit up like fireworks: photos of Lauren Sánchez in couture, champagne toasts aboard a $500 million superyacht, and a guest list of billionaires and influencers drifting off the Amalfi Coast. TikToks. Reels. Breathless coverage of every detail.

Meanwhile, the House passed one of the most dangerous and devastating bills in modern U.S. history—misleadingly branded the One Big Beautiful Bill. Senate Republicans are now rushing it through a series of votes, with final passage expected before July 4. And the stakes? Nothing short of catastrophic.

While you were distracted by designer dresses and drone shots, they pushed through a bill that:

• Forces nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid—the largest reduction in the program’s history by a factor of four.
• Kicks 11.8 million people off SNAP, stripping food assistance from working families, children, and the elderly.
• Strips healthcare from 5% of Americans, disproportionately harming people of color, people with disabilities, and rural communities.
• Expands ICE’s budget beyond that of many national militaries.
• Undermines green energy, not only slashing investment but actively taxing renewables, jeopardizing hundreds of thousands of jobs.
• Adds $3–5 trillion to the national debt, while delivering massive tax breaks to billionaires and corporations.
• Guts the federal student loan system, cutting off income-driven repayment, capping borrowing, and decimating forgiveness options for public servants.

And buried deep inside this Trojan horse is a sweeping plan to dismantle public education through a backdoor national school voucher scheme.

National School Vouchers by Stealth

The term “Big Beautiful Bill” or “One Big Beautiful Bill” refers to this massive budget reconciliation package. Among its most insidious elements is a proposed $5 billion national school voucher program.

Let’s be clear about what this is and what it does.

What it is: This provision offers federal tax credits to individuals and corporations who donate to scholarship-granting organizations (SGOs). These SGOs then fund private school tuition, homeschooling, and other non-public education expenses. This is not direct funding. It’s designed to evade legal scrutiny by disguising public financing of private education as charitable giving—especially for religious schools.

Eligibility: Families earning up to 300% of the area median income—not just low-income households—could apply, expanding the scope far beyond what most state programs allow.

Donor Benefits: Wealthy donors receive generous tax credits and may even avoid capital gains taxes when donating stock. It’s a double benefit: dodge taxes and redirect public funding to private causes.

Accountability? None: Private schools receiving these funds are not required to follow civil rights laws, report outcomes, or accept all students. This allows discrimination, segregation, and publicly subsidized exclusion—all with zero oversight.

This isn’t about “school choice.” It’s about the sabotage of public education.

People Want to Look Away, I Know Why

A very thoughtful colleague recently shared with me that she no longer watches the news. “I’m focusing on positive information.” The heaviness of the world, she explained, had become overwhelming, and she has to take time to protect her peace. I understand that deeply. In times like these, joy, rest, and healing are not just luxuries, they’re essential for survival, especially for those who carry so much.

I’ve been reflecting on how each of us navigates that delicate balance between care and consciousness. There are seasons when we must retreat to restore ourselves. And there are also moments when our presence, our voices, and even our discomfort are needed in the struggle for justice. The beauty of collective work is that we don’t all have to carry the weight at the same time, but when the call comes, we each have something powerful to offer.

We must pay close attention as much as we are able. Because politicians are offloading public trillions in debt onto your children. They’re slipping language into the bill that rewrites how higher education is financed in America. They’re turning Pell Grants into state-controlled vouchers and decimating federal loan forgiveness programs that have been lifelines for Black, brown, and working-class public servants.

This is not accidental. It’s part of the authoritarian playbook. Flood the zone with nonsense. Overwhelm the public with culture war theatrics and celebrity gossip. Exhaust journalists and bloggers with procedural chaos and late-night amendments. Create daily distractions so you can smuggle in deeply unpopular policies while no one’s watching.

The far right has learned that it doesn’t have to convince the majority of Americans to agree. It just has to make us numb. If we’re too overwhelmed to track the details—or worse, if we choose to look away—then they win by attrition. The loudest voices dominate while the most consequential policies sneak through in silence.

Bezos Gets a Headline. Students Get Debt.

When Jeff Bezos got married, he didn’t just trend—he dominated the news cycle. Meanwhile, only a fraction of Americans even know what the Big Beautiful Bill does to their kids’ schools, their student loans, their groceries, or their healthcare. This isn’t just ignorance. It’s strategic negligence—and it’s being cultivated. We are being trained to look away from what matters most. It’s by design.

If this bill passes, millions of students will face more debt, fewer protections, and less access to education. Communities of color will be hit hardest. Our educational system will be gutted by voucher schemes that enrich private institutions while draining resources from the public good. This isn’t just about dollars. It’s about democracy. Every dollar diverted from public education is a dollar diverted from civic agency. Schools are among the last institutions where young people learn to think critically, to question power, to organize for change. That’s why they’re under attack.

What You Can Do Right Now

We need a radical shift in civic attention. Not because it’s fashionable. Not because it’s trending. But because the stakes are existential. So yes—enjoy joy. Drop your kids off at summer camp. Protect your peace. But do not look away. Not now. Not from this. Read the bill summaries. Follow the watchdogs. Push your representatives for answers. Ask why a bill called “beautiful” removes forgiveness options for teachers and social workers. Ask why it turns federal aid into privatization slush. Ask why a ruling from the Senate parliamentarian was ignored in the rush to slide vouchers into law. And ask why Bezos’ wedding got more airtime than a bill that could shape—and sabotage—the future of American education for a generation.

This bill is not yet law. Final Senate votes are coming within days.

Here’s what you can do:

1. Call your Senator. Especially if they’re Republican. Demand a NO vote. Fill up their voicemail. Then send an email. Then do it again.
2. Join a phonebank with MoveOn or Working Families.
3. Knock on doors in your community. Indivisible will give you a list of neighbors to reach today.
4. Chip in to support canvassing, billboards, and organizing.
5. Talk about this—loudly and everywhere.

A Final Word

The Big Beautiful Bill is a warning shot, not a final chapter. But we must look away from the yacht and back toward the Capitol. Toward our classrooms. Toward our communities. Toward our collective future.

Because billionaires don’t just benefit from your distraction—they’re now increasingly complicit in it. From Elon Musk’s weaponized social media platforms to Jeff Bezos’ vanity-soaked coverage to Mark Zuckerberg’s algorithmic bias, these men are not passive bystanders. They are active players in the erosion of public trust, public goods, and public discourse. They don’t want us politically engaged. They need us consuming, not questioning. Tired, not fighting. They want us doom scrolling but not engaged. And that, my friends, is where democracy goes to die.

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