Public Education

8 Thoughts on the Issues #3

Education is one of those issues where Republicans twist themselves into knots trying to come up with a plan. Ultimately, when you're opposed to public education on "principle", how do you ensure equal opportunity to a quality education in America? Well, if you want to get elected, you don't actually say you are opposed to public education. That would be one of those mammoth blunders that would become part of the political folklore for generations.

Instead, you attack public education on the fringes. You throw around concepts like "vouchers" and "school choice" and "accountability". You turn the teachers and the schools into the problem. You don't offer new ideas, you simply try to create business opportunities in the realm of education. You turn it into a market. The goal is to make education profitable.

For all it's problems, the goal of the public education system is to provide the best education possible for our children. In many districts across the nation, the public education system has come up short of its goals. While the children are the biggest victims of our public education failures, we have to acknowledge that the teachers and the schools are victims as well. The government and the politicians have failed public education.

It is indisputable that there is a crisis in funding for public education. Don't get me wrong, the Republicans are right when they say the answer isn't simply throwing money at the schools. However, we can't pretend that we don't need to pour additional funds into our school systems. We cannot allow schools to continue to cut programs. We cannot expect more from our teachers without paying them a professional salary that their education and the importance of their job demands.

We need to do this, and not only because the 21st century job market will require more of the current generation of America children than has been required at any point in our past. We need to do this to save our country from the rampant mistakes of the past three decades.

If we expect our government to behave honorably in our foreign policy, we have to educate our children about the mistakes we have made in our past and we must educate them about the good we have accomplished.

If we expect our government to avoid financial catastrophes, we must educate our children about the Great Depression and the New Deal. We must ensure that they have a better understanding of our economic system than most adults of my age do. We must teach children how to responsibly manage debt.

If we expect our children to be entrepreneurs, to create their own wealth and provide for their own security, then we must ensure that our children are familiar with the newest technologies. We must also foster their creativity. A student who learns about art and music is more creative than a student who simply learns the basics of education. It is a creative student that will have that idea that business magazines will talk about for decades.

If we expect our politicians to better serve our people, then we must educate our children about civic responsibility. They must be taught that our leadership in government reflects the interest of the people. If the people aren't interested in our government, then we will have government, and consequently politicians, that are not interested in our people.

If the United States of America is to prosper again, we need to provide the public education system that our children and our nation deserve.