Toward a More Perfect Union: A Prescriptive Approach — Education
V. Education
Education
Education grounded in facts and supported by science is essential to a well-informed citizenry. Such education of all citizens must be publicly available to all regardless of personal wealth, ethnicity, gender, personal opinions and lifestyle, or any other irrelevant characteristic.
Public education that is available to all has been the primary key to America’s intellectual and economic dominance over the past decades. Without it, we are merely another third-world country. And yet the current administration and its rabidly right-wing supporters have shown an absolute distrust and disdain for education. The Secretary of Education is a very wealthy right-wing ideologue who was raised in private schools, who has championed charter schools at the expense of public education, and who is spectacularly ignorant of basic issues pertinent to public education. The president has essentially endorsed this approach.
The upshot is that good public education is withering, and inner-city, rural, and numerous other schools are being left to rot in place. Nationwide, we are seeing public school funding being reduced, public colleges and universities suffering similar constraints, and students being ignored and left behind. All of this is closely related to the recent tax scam that robs from the poor and gives to the wealthy. Public education is mainly supported through tax revenue, and the eliminating of much of that revenue is putting us at a significant disadvantage compared to other industrial nations.
It is said that children are our future, and this is axiomatically true. In that we are destroying our educational system, we are destroying our future.
A major reason we need a change in those governing us is to reestablish public education as a top priority for our nation. The state of Kansas, for instance, has support of public education embodied in its constitution; while currently being fought by the rabid right and under attack, it is still in the Kansas Constitution and is the basis for the state’s supreme court requiring the legislature to find better ways to fund it. We also need an amendment in the Federal Constitution that prioritizes and funds public education, not just through 12th grade, but through college degree programs.
Science vs. Superstition
The advancement of science and the scientific method is behind all the conveniences of the modern world: transportation, communication, distribution of food and other necessities, space and deep-sea exploration, understanding of the universe, modern forms of entertainment, and the list goes on. Science is also behind the advancement in weapons of war and mass destruction that make our existence fragile. This being so, it is imperative that we develop ethical norms that can restrain the worst effects of science. For example, there is a great need for consensus on the cloning of humans, the treatment of bio-chemical weapons, the oversight of nuclear weapons, pollution, and such.
Since the only viable path to mitigate climate change would be the use of science, it stands to reason that we should be promoting scientific research in much that same way we tackled the space race in the wake of Sputnik in 1957. Reason, however, seems to be in short supply.
Anti-intellectualism and disdain for education are on an alarming increase. It is evident that the so-called “make America great again” sentiment harkens to a more superstitious and less scientific past, when America actually was not so great. The effort to deny climate change is a logical partner to the effort to destroy public education. Evidently, many of our “representatives” would rather we believe a fairy tale than to effectively combat the existential threat that is climate change.
Those who prefer the ostrich approach of burying their heads in the sand are usually the same people who insist that ours is a “Christian” nation, that the rapture will happen next Tuesday or next year, and that the Lord will provide. Sure; the same way He provided for the Jews in their diaspora for 2000 years, the same way He allowed the Black Death to devastate Europe in the 14th century, the same way He stood by the victims of Hitler and Stalin in the 1930’s and 40’s, the same way He protects Syrians from their own government’s genocide. There is one biblical anodyne that may be relevant: “The Lord helps those who help themselves.” In short, we need to work out our social and environmental problems for ourselves lest we succumb to them in the end. The day of depending on magic and superstition is long past. We now know enough science to explain and cope with that which used to be accepted as “acts of God.”
The obvious solution here is to reestablish education and science as primary values. Only a significant change in those elected to congress and the presidency will insure a return to sanity.
Continued in Part 16 — Economics
Other options:
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Return to Part 4 — Congress
Return to Part 5 — President and DOJ
Return to Part 6 — Campaign Financing
Return to Part 7 — Lying and Ethics
Return to Part 8 — Sexism and LGBT
Return to Part 9 — Abortion & Church/State
Return to Part 10 — Guns
Return to Part 11 — Healthcare & VA
Return to Part 12 — Big Pharma
Return to Part 13 — Environment
Return to Part 14 — Energy
Go to Part 17 — Unions, Safety Net
Go to Part 18 — Homelessness
Go to Part 19 — Trade, Tariffs
Go to Part 20 — Media
Go to Part 21 — War, National Security
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Above is the fifteenth of numerous submissions wherein I suggest ways our country, our government, and the world can be made better. I am an old fart in my 70’s and have seen much: the turmoil of the 1960’s; Vietnam (where I served as an infantry officer and was awarded a purple heart and other medals); the anti-Vietnam protests (in which I participated while still in uniform); Watergate, the rise of the right wing attack on the poor and powerless during and after the Reagan years; the continued wars in Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan and pretty much everywhere else; the Clinton years, the invasion of Iraq in 2002 and the never-ending war since; the brief glow of sunshine during the Obama years; and now Trump. While my dog in this fight is getting long in the tooth, I still deeply care about three things: my country, my country’s honor, and the future we leave to our descendants. My personal history, other than military service, includes college teaching, computer support, hospital IT supervision, consulting, and now — in my retirement — substitute teaching.
I make my recommendations in all seriousness, recognizing that most of them are not immediately attainable. Nevertheless, if we elect people who share our values as our representatives at all levels of government, we can accomplish much.