Education is the key to freedom
A message from ol' Tom: "A population ignorant and free has never been and will never be." - Thomas Jefferson, 1818
Stated a little differently, the freedoms we enjoy in our democratic country can only endure so long as we have an informed and educated electorate. Where the people rule, particularly through elective representation, they have to have knowledge and critical thinking skills sufficient to get it right. And education (mass education) and freedom (democracy) have a synergistic relationship, each one infusing life and energy into the other. Without one, the demise of its counterpart is all but assured.
In Idaho today we are in the midst of a great crisis in our public school system, a crisis which, if left untended, will have dire consequences not only for our children, but for our cherished liberty, and for our posterity. Depending which critical category you look at, Idaho's public schools rank either 48th, 49th, or 50th nationally, and the primary cause is inadequate funding from our legislature. In a state so rich in so many resources, how can this be? 50th out of 50. Heck, we even make Mississippi look good! Investing in improving our kids' education is a much wiser use of state revenue than spending millions to lure out-of-state companies here offering Idaho's under-educated cheap labor as bait, as if Idaho were a third-world country. Some folks in Boise have really dropped the ball on this one.
Preparing our next generation of American citizens to adequately, thoroughly and uniformly meet the challenges of the future is an almost sacred civic responsibility for all of us, particularly our elected leadership. And if those who legislate in Boise every year can only offer narrow ideology and excuses instead of results, it's time to replace them with others more dutiful and patriotic who will get the job done. For most of our kids and grandkids, public education is their single best shot for making it in life. We have to get it right.
On the first Tuesday of next month (or sooner if you can get an absentee ballot), we have an opportunity - actually, a responsibility - to vote for long-overdue and necessary change. This is about priorities, about shifting the paradigms, and this is an issue transcending mere party affiliation. This is about our affiliation as Americans with the ideals of our Founding Fathers, ideals that have served us well through more than two centuries' time, ideals that easily account for America's greatness and exceptionalism. This is about providing for others that which was provided for us.
Bottom line, on Nov. 4 make sure you've studied the positions of your candidates for legislative and state offices, especially the records and positions of the incumbents, think about ol' Tom Jefferson, and then...
* Vote pro-education for freedom and the continued health of our democracy.
* Vote pro-education for a better, brighter future for our kids and grandkids.
* Vote pro-education for economic independence and to help rebuild our middle class.
* Vote pro-education because it's the right thing to do.
America, for all its flaws, is still the best hope for mankind, still, as Ronald Reagan liked to say, the "Shining City on the Hill." Working together, let's make sure our kids have what they need to make it all the way to the top of that hill.
50th out of 50. Dead last. Simply shameful!
Soli Docti Liberi Sunt
(Only the educated are free.)
Dave Eubanks is a member of the Coeur d'Alene School District's board of trustees.