Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain.
--Former President John F. Kennedy
In wake of the recent Super Tuesday primaries a speech was given by republican candidate Mike Huckabee that repeated a troubling conservative talking point. In the course of his victory speech over the Arkansas primary, Huckabee said that one of his constituency’s concerns was that “families could raise children better than government could”. He then went on to say that, “government should under gird the American family and not undermine it”. In discussions with Huckabee supporters I have encountered an almost militant anti-education stance. Somehow it has become a political point of contention that public education and private education standards are somehow undermining of the American family.
This debate is over whether or not education is in the public good and therefore can be administered by the state for the good of all children. First we must establish the benefits of education. It turns out that education is the silver bullet when it comes to the societal health of a nation. The Congressional Joint Economic Committee Study of 2000 says that a higher level of education equals not only a higher pay rate but the larger percentage of a population is educated the higher the economic growth [1]. Furthermore the Justice Policy Institute has performed an in-depth study that tells us that there is a direct correlation between the level of education an American has and his chance of being incarcerated [2]. Education is one of the most important factors in determining not only financial success, but happiness. For example, many psychological studies into the science of happiness have included education and, education influenced, income in their calculations [3]. On top of all these direct causes we can see that an informed electorate also helps shape a better world. A thorough understanding of the issues can only be reached through education. Education should be one of our top priorities and held as one of the markers of a society.
Publicly funded education is seen by some among small government conservatives and libertarians as an egregious intrusion into personal liberty. Yet private schools and “home schooling” are common options throughout the United States. Of course we need to look into the fact that these institutions cannot, or should not, be left unchecked. After speaking with Huckabee supporters and libertarian pundits I have had the charge leveled that by imposing educational standards on private schools and home-schools that the government is attempting to raise our children. We can easily shrug this off this charge as a fallacy, considering that education standards are not attempting to teach our children which religion to follow, or which political party to vote for, but rather are ensuring that every student is being taught the same elemental weight of hydrogen or the same number of feet in a yard. Of course the question is asked why we need uniformity of data in education.
I cannot say enough that education is the silver bullet for a society. To understand the need for education standards we need to understand why education is important. No matter the medium, education gives children the tools they need to understand then world around them. Logic, reason, study form problem solving abilities that are not only practical, but can be used in social situations as well. Mathematics are the foundation of all modern science. Biology and Chemistry are not only of key importance in one’s daily life, but helps expose a child to fields of study. Music and art helps introduce children to a world of ideas in which those that have both a knack and the drive can excel. Yet what would happen if education was not uniform? We see already in extreme cases that home-schooling parents can distort reality for their child. A few religious extremists deny the world is round, and will teach their child this. Not only the concept, but also the entire modality of thinking associated with a denial of the real world can be imparted by parents who hold such fringe views. Now suppose that this child wanted to be an astronomer or geologist and instead of taking in new information during college, he rejects all of this science in favor of this deeply ingrained absurd belief.
Suppose a parent is a white supremacist and teaches their child the holocaust never occurred. Suppose a child is taught that there was never slavery in this country. Suppose they are taught that left is right and right is left. Not only will this child become unemployable and reduced to the lower levels of the economy and society for not having an understanding of how the world works, but he affects all those around him. No man is an island they say and ignorance is no defense, but in a world where one child can learn that red means go and green means stop can they really be held accountable for running a red light? Legally, of course; but morally the instructors are just as much to blame. Uniformity of information is sought, not uniformity of philosophy or religion, just uniformity of data. Because we live in a world where no matter what we think or how we were raised the apple will always fall at the same speed.
Let’s see why we would want public education for our children as opposed to a privatized system. Public education is a fulfillment of the promise of liberty and freedom. To put it bluntly, public education is the only egalitarian answer. In the system of public education all children are held to the same standard regardless of their economic status. Within the public education system all children are exposed to the bare facts and allowed to come to their own conclusions. Public education philosophy teaches children how to live and work in a cooperative society. Within a public school the rich white child is taught out of the same math and english text book as the poor black child. With education so imperative for happiness and success, how can we deny this from every American?
Certainly the current public education system has problems, but all of these can be fixed. Our public schools are not broken, just in need of some repair. Despite their faults the schools provide an important function in the development of young men and women. At schools a child is given a nutritious lunch, even if their parents can’t afford one for them. In the halls of a public school teachers are sharp eyed for signs of abuse and neglect. A safety net is created for those students who have special needs and as of yet undiagnosed learning difficulties. A public setting allows impartial distribution of facts and history while also arming our young people for life in the real world by professionals who have studied for years to not only understand their field, but to instruct others in it as well. Public education allows everyone to be on equal footing, just as we would expect of a nation that tells us that all men are created equal. I think Claude L. Kulp, superintendent of Ithaca School District, said it best when he said, “ There is a doctrine that is fundamental in American education. That is: every child born or adopted by this republic has by virtue of that fact the right to have developed whatever of talent he may possess, without reference to the quality, quantity, or type of that talent, under conditions favorable to such development, and that he shall have assured to him the opportunity to go as far as his ability and ambition will permit in order that he may live his life more abundantly than he otherwise could”.
So what would happen if we privatized all schools? First of all I would like to address what I see as a popular misconception. The idea that a privatized system will have better results than a publicly owned one. While it is true that publicly administered systems (utilities, travel, healthcare, etc.) are subject to political corruption and bureaucracy, we must understand the alternative. A privatized system does in fact encourage competition. However, it also encourages profit over people. Suppose that a hospital could save money by not performing a life saving surgery, is that best for the community that hospital services? Of course not, but it is best for their bottom line. I grew up in a small southern town with only one High School per county. Suppose that high school was privatized? There would be no competition unless a family either moved or opted to travel extensively to and from a distant school. As I’ve expounded above there would still need to be the need for academic standards enforced for the benefit of the students and the community.
Yet privatized schools are more troublesome above their preference of profit over the good of the child, it is the issue of money. A privatized system would require parents to pay for their child’s tuition. In America we have a progressive tax system designed to take tax money from the rich and use it to, among other things, educate the poor. In a privatized system the lower classes would go uneducated. Combine this economic cut off with a lack of competition in most rural areas and you have created an elite educated upper class that is literate and able to attend college right alongside an almost unemployable underclass incapable of gaining a higher education. This libertarian model would take us back to birth of our nation where literacy was rare and a handful of white elite businessmen controlled all of government.
The sins of the father should not be visited upon the son. And it is the unwritten rule of parenthood to give your child better than you yourself had. So how can we allow the income of parent to decide the entire future of a child? If we are all created equal, how can we give preference to some children in education and not others? And if our government was created to, “...Promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity..”; how can we not endorse public education? With an educational system funded by all and open to all equally and freely we ensure that we live in a free society in which every child has the chance to be the best man or woman they can be. A world in which every child is educated is not only a richer, happier world, but a place where great ideas can change the world. How can we not give our children and our neighbor’s children this golden opportunity?
Education is the factory that turns animals into human beings.
--Ghulam Hazrat Tanha, Afghanistan Director of Education
